2012 – gruesome year for journalists worldwide

The year 2012 is turning out to be a gruesome year for journalists, with 72 being killed so far.{{more}}

As she delivered a report last Sunday, on the State of Press Freedom Worldwide, Alison Bethel McKenzie, Executive Director of the International Press Institute (IPI), said 2012 is the worst it has been since the IPI began keeping records 15 years ago.

“From Somalia to Syria, the Phillipines to Mexico and Iraq to Pakistan, reporters are being brutally targeted for death in unparalleled numbers. So far this year, 72 journalists died because of their work. Last year was the second worst on record, with 102 journalists killed, and 2009 was the grimmest ever, with 110 deaths, 32 of them in a single election convoy massacre in the Phillipines …,” said Bethel McKenzie, at the opening ceremony of the 60th Annual IPI World Congress, which is being held in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

The Executive Director, who was visibly emotional during her presentation, said it is “deeply disturbing” that in a year so “massively impacted” by the “overthrow of brutal Arab regimes through people and media power,” journalists are dying on the job in record numbers.

The Executive Director noted that throughout the Middle East and North Africa, journalists continue to be targeted for assault, arrest, harassment and intimidating criminal defamation suits, including in countries such as Tunisia, where things are “supposed to be getting better”.

In this region, the third most deadly in the world, Mexico leads the pack with six reporters being killed so far this year, all of them within the space of 50 days. Fourteen journalists have been killed so far, in 2012, in Latin America.

Giving the feature address at Sunday’s opening ceremony, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago George Maxwell Richards suggested that journalists be given some form of international immunity, such as that given to the Red Cross, in light of the dangers they face around the world.

Richards compared the role and responsibilities of journalists to those of diplomats, and questioned whether journalists ever thought of themselves as diplomats.

“Some may shun the description, because there is a popular myth, and it is only a myth, that a diplomat is one who is paid to lie for one’s country and journalists, after all, must give the facts as they are, with no covers,” he said.

He, however, invited members of the media to give some thought to the possible similarities between their mission and that of diplomats.

“Your influence in world affairs cannot be denied, and one need on harp on the attendant responsibilities.

“… Within the recent past, particularly, we have seen the critical role that the media has played in world affairs. World opinion has been galvanized as a result of media reporting and the course of history has turned accordingly. Personal safety has been eschewed in the interest of ensuring worldwide awareness of and sometimes participation in events as they have unfolded,” Richards said.

“As we are witnessing, the risks for media personnel are ever increasing as they are for diplomats, in a changing world environment, which does not guarantee safety. The dangers for foreign media, as for local, are very real, in areas of conflict. Journalism is no walk in the park, so to speak, ” he added.

The Congress, which is being held in this region for the first time, is being attended by more than 300 journalists from 60 countries, including Zambia, Nigeria, Russia, Japan, South Korea, St Vincent and the Grenadines and other Caribbean countries.

The Congress is being held under the theme: “Media in a Challenging World – a 360 degree perspective”.

There are two Vincentian delegates at the Congress: Clare Keizer, Chief Executive Officer of Interactive Media/Editor of Searchlight newspaper and Theresa Daniel, Consultant at the National Broadcasting Corporation.

The IPI, based in Vienna, Austria, is a global network of publishers, editors-in-chief and media executives, with more than 2000 members in more than 120 countries, in all types of media including print, television, radio, news agencies and online media.

Topics being discussed at the Congress include the role of state owned media, criminal defamation in the Caribbean, new business models for the media, manipulation of the media through the use of government advertising, covering organized crime and corruption, digital monetization for media groups, covering the environment,

the impact of Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela on press freedom in the region, online media ethics and the journalist as a political mouthpiece.

The Congress ends this evening, with a closing ceremony and reception hosted by Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad Bissessar.