Governments around the world are failing to investigate the murders of journalists with Mexico and India having the maximum number of recent such cases pending investigation, the International Press Institute (IPI) said in a report on Wednesday.
The Vienna-based global organisation of editors, journalists and media executives in its ‘Death Watch’ said as many as 100 journalists lost their lives around the world in connection with their work over the past year.
Of these, at least 32 were killed in retaliation for their work, frequently in response to reports exposing corruption or the activities of crime syndicates.
The Death Watch includes an additional 41 journalists whose killings are suspected of being linked to their work but for which there remains insufficient evidence due to poor or lacking investigations.
The IPI said 13 journalists lost their lives covering armed conflict, a majority of them in Afghanistan.
In Mexico, 14 journalists were murdered and in India 12 died in targeted killings in the last one year, it said.
In the case of Syed Shujaat Bukhari, the editor-in-chief of Rising Kashmir, who was killed on June 14 outside his office, suspects have been identified but not yet brought to justice, it said.
The IPI Executive Board will gather in Bratislava, Slovakia to mark International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on November 2.