India among deadliest countries for journalists last year: Report

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The report ranked India as the 9th deadliest country since 1992 with 40 journalists being killed since then.

Rajdev Ranjan of Hindustan Times and Karun Misra of Jansandesh Times were murdered in 2016 for which, the CPJ said, the motive was confirmed to have been a “direct reprisal” for their work. The report said three other journalists in India were killed this year and the motive is still unconfirmed, “but it is possible” that they were killed for their work.

Since 1992, 40 journalists have been confirmed to have been killed for their work in India, while another 27 were killed but the motive is not certain, the report said.

Half of those murdered since 1992 covered politics or corruption, sometimes both. Nearly a quarter of them were reporting on business.
About half of the murders were committed by “political groups” and a fifth were killed by “criminal groups”, the report said.

About 96 per cent of the perpetrators of these crimes have enjoyed “compete impunity” in India, while in the rest of the cases only “partial justice” has been served.

Globally, too, justice has been served in only 4 per cent cases of journalist killings.

The worst year of journalists in India was 1997, with seven killings, for which motives were confirmed to have been related to their work. Internationally, 2012 saw the highest number of killings—74 deaths—with confirmed motives.