Geneva, 30 June 2022: Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), the global media safety andrights body, has been appalled by the large number of journalists killed in thefirst six months of 2022. The year-on-year increase is 100% with 72 victims in18 countries since January compared to 36 deaths in the same period last year.

By 2021, 79 media workers were killed and 92 by 2020 for thewhole year.

“There must be no impunity. All these crimes must be fully investigatedwithout exception. In light of this very worrying deterioration, PEC hasrenewed its call to the United Nations for the
adoption of an international convention strengthening the protection ofjournalists with investigation and prosecution mechanisms,” said Blaise Lempen,president of PEC (www.pressemblem.ch).

The war in Ukraine and the rampant criminality in Mexico are the main reasonsfor this alarming deterioration. With 4 journo-casualties, India comes afterUkraine and Mexico. Pakistan, Haiti and Yemen followed with 3 killed in eachcountry. PEC recorded 2 victims in Bangladesh, Brazil, Honduras,Israel/Palestine and the Philippines, and 1 victim in Myanmar, Turkey, Chad,Chile, Guatemala, Kazakhstan and the United States.

In Ukraine, the conflict triggered by Russia hasclaimed  30 victims (in 4 months) among media workers, 16 in the line ofduty and 14 journalists killed in fighting as soldiers or volunteers in thearmy.

Russian and Ukrainian authorities must ensure thatjournalists are not targeted while covering the ongoing fighting and that theycan work freely. Mexico  in the last six months witnessed 12 media victimsthat exceeds the total figure (10 killed) for 2021.

PEC’s south & southeast Asia representative NavaThakuria informs that the entire region continues to be hazardous for workingjournalists, where the scribes are being targeted with impunity. Indiawitnessed the killings of Rohit Kumar Biswal,  Sudhir Saini, Juned KhanPathan
and Subhash Kumar Mahato in the first half of 2022, while Pakistan loses mediaworkers Hasnain Shah, Murtaza Shar and Athar Mateen.

Bangladesh lost Mohiuddin Sarker Nayeem and Abdul Bari,while the Philippines  lost Jhannah Villegas and Jaynard Angeles toassailants and  Myanmar witnessed the death of Pu Tui Dim in militaryatrocities.