Charlie Hebdo attack puts France among deadliest for press

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35192266

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The Charlie Hebdo murders in January have catapulted France to second place in an annual list of the world's most deadly countries for journalists.

The nine journalists killed in the attack left France second only to Syria, where 13 journalists were killed in 2015 in the course of their work.

In all, 69 journalists lost their lives in the line of duty, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Some 28 of those - 40% - were killed by Islamic extremists, said the CPJ.

The death toll, which includes journalists killed between 1 January and 23 December, is higher than the 61 journalists killed in 2014.

And it may yet rise: the CPJ is investigating the deaths of at least 26 more journalists during the year to determine whether they were work-related.

Syria has been the most deadly country for the press for the past four years, although the 13 deaths recorded in 2015 were a decrease on the previous year.

That reflects in part the reduced number of journalists working in the country as the so-called Islamic State expands its territorial control, the CPJ said, as well as the increased difficulty of monitoring violence in the country.

Limited access to information in other war-torn countries - including Libya, Yemen, and Iraq - may have also lowered the recorded death toll worldwide.

The CPJ publishes a report annually recording the deaths of journalists worldwide, including those who are targeted for their work as well as those who die in combat crossfire or on other dangerous assignments.

The fatalities in 2015 were more widely distributed than the previous three years, the CPJ said. At least five journalists were killed in each of Iraq, Brazil, Bangladesh, South Sudan, and Yemen.

The Charlie Hebdo massacre was the deadliest single attack on journalists - nine members of the Paris-based satirical magazine were killed, along with three police officers.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen, said it organised the attack.

Among others killed for their work this year was US-Bangladeshi writer Avijit Roy. Mr Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism, was hacked to death with a machete as he walked with his wife from a book fair in Dhaka. He was 42.

The release of the CPJ report comes just two days after the murder of a Syrian journalist in Turkey. Filmmaker Naji Jerf was assassinated by gunmen on a busy Turkish street.

Mr Jerf was a member of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, an activist group which takes great risks to report on abuses perpetrated by IS. His death was too recent to have been considered by the CPJ for its report.