The most dangerous country for journalists for the second year in a row remains Pakistan

Pakistan, as last year, was recognized as the most dangerous country for journalists - there, seven reporters were killed in the performance of official duties. According to the report of journalists, which was widespread on Tuesday, reports of the New York Committee, most journalists - 18 - last year died in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa. In total, 43 journalists fell victims in the world in 2011.

The countries in which journalistic activities are associated with the greatest degree of risk are also Libya and Iraq, where five cases of the death of journalists are registered, and Mexico, in which three media representatives were killed, ITAR-TASS reports with reference to the organization’s data.

In 2010, according to the statistics of the committee, 44 journalists were killed . Currently, the Committee is investigating 35 more deaths that occurred in 2011 to determine whether they were associated with the professional activities of the dead.

In Russia, in 2011, one murder of a journalist was registered. Last week in Makhachkala, the general director of LLC Freedom of Speech LLC, the founder of the republican independent newspaper Chernivik, Hadzhimurad Kamalov was killed .

According to the committee, significant changes occurred in the nature of the death of journalists: the number of targeted killings has decreased, and mortality in the performance of dangerous tasks reached record indicators. So, when performing dangerous tasks, 16 journalists were killed, and many of them - during the lighting of unrest that covered the Arab world.

During the fighting in the past year, eight journalists were killed, most of them during the revolution in Libya. As noted in the report, in 2011, especially a lot of photojournalists died: about 40% of all deaths accounted for photographers and operators.

Over the course of the year, eight online journalists were also killed. In particular, one of the victims was the Mexican reporter Maria Elizabeth Masias Castro, whose decapitated body was found near the city of Nuevo-Ledo, along with a note, which stated that the 39-year-old journalist was killed for news coverage on social media sites. As noted in the committee, this is the first murder in the world, directly related to journalistic publications on social networks.

The Committee has been recorded by the death of journalists since 1992. Note that his data does not coincide with the statistics of other similar organizations. So, back in September, the International Press Institute (IPI), based in Vienna, reported that 82 journalists have already died in the 9 months of the year in the performance of their official duties.