RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Mexico and Afghanistan, the countries where more journalists were murdered in 2018, remained the most dangerous places for the exercise of this profession in the first half of 2019.
The document shows that nine journalists were murdered this year in Mexico, while six were killed in Afghanistan.
These two countries account for almost a third of the 38 journalists murdered in the world in the first half of this year, a figure which nevertheless represents a drop of 42 percent compared to the same period the previous year, according to the SGP.
The main reasons for these two countries remaining the most dangerous to exercise the profession are related to “terrorist groups in Afghanistan and criminal groups in Mexico,” according to the organization.
Latin America was the region with the highest number of murdered reporters, 15 in total (those mentioned in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil (2 murders), as well as one in Honduras and another in Haiti).
Regarding the Middle East, the SGP commented that this area had seen some improvement in press worker security as a result, “among other reasons, of the diminishing conflict in Syria and Iraq.”
“The international community must establish an independent system to combat impunity when national institutions are neither efficient nor sufficient to fill the gaps in prevention, protection, and prosecution,” said SGP Secretary-General Blaise Lempen.