2009 was an unusually dramatic year in the journalism world. But not because of ongoing corporate changes, which translated as the further downsizing of media companies. Lost jobs and denigrated institutional memory at major news outlets was an important part of what happened to reporters and their kin in the past year.
However, the most significant human drama was the high number of journalists murdered. Killed while they were working or because of stories they reported on, most of their murderers are still walking free. Impunity in murder cases of journalists worldwide is shockingly high.
The total number of journalists killed in 2009 was 76. The only other deadlier year in the past decade was 2007, when 86 were killed.
The year started with fears about the safety of journalists as threats and “mysterious deaths” of reporters in war-torn countries like Afghanistan continued. Extremely dangerous conditions in the middle east included the January Israeli offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Media access was restricted and 2 journalists died in the violence.
The capture and imprisonment of U.S. journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling in North Korea brought new fears about the safety of American journalists working overseas. The women, who work for CurrentTV, were eventually rescued and brought home safely after the dramatic intervention of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and a skilled team that solved the crisis with diplomacy.
In May, Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi was released from prison in Iran, after being accused of and imprisoned for being a spy for the U.S. government. Saberi had worked as a freelance journalist in Iran for years.
The second half of 2009 took a turn for the worse, beginning with the tragic unfolding of events in Iran as tens of thousands of people took to the street in protest of questionable results in the country’s presidential elections. As traditional media outlets were shut down or shut out, citizens took it upon themselves to get the word out through other avenues. Twitter and Facebook were used to publicize human rights violations and as an outlet for citizen journalism.
Months after the initial protests in the streets–which have continued– high profile journalists inside Iran are still being jailed. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that just in the past week, at least 11 journalists have been jailed by the Iranian government. They include former International Press Freedom Award recipient Mashallah Shamsolvaezin and prominent writer Emadeddin Baghi. According to CPJ, there are now more than 30 detained journalists in Iran.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), overall incidents involving journalists in 2009 were:
Traditional Journalists
33 journalists kidnapped
573 journalists arrested
1456 physically assaulted
570 media censored
157 journalists fled their countries
Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents
1 blogger died in prison
151 bloggers and cyber-dissidents arrested
61 physically assaulted
60 countries affected by online censorship
Most tragically, 76 journalists were killed in the past year, compared to 60 in 2008, an increase of 26 percent.
The most highly publicized of these murder cases included Franco-Spanish journalist Christian Poveda. Poveda , a documentary filmmaker who created a highly controversial film called “La Vida Loca” about Salvadoran gangs, was shot in the head in El Salvador. Several people have been arrested in connection with his execution, which has been linked to his work on documenting and exposing gangs in the tiny Central American country.
In the Philippines, a caravan of people traveling in connection with upcoming elections there was attacked. Dozens of people were murdered, including 30 journalists. It was the worst mass murder of journalists in history.