61 journalists including four Pakistanis killed in first half of 2014

Ukraine more dangerous than Syria ,says Press Emblem Campaign
Geneva, PEC (22 July) – According to the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) biannual report 61 journalists were killed in 22 countries since the beginning of this year, a figure higher than that of the first 6 months of 2013 where the number of killed journalists stood at 59 journalists.
PEC Secretary-General BlaiseLempen noted that there is no improvement in the protection of journalists.He added that the great number of conflicts have increased dramatically the risks facing media workers.
“With the current pace and with new media victims falling in the Gaza war it is expected that the tally for 2014 could become one of the worst in the recent years,” stressedLempen.
PEC Secretary-General said that with 7 media workers killed in Ukraine the torn country becomes with Iraq the most dangerous country for media work even ahead of Syria. “It is very worrying that a European country heads the list of most dangerous countries while in the past Europe did not flag in the statistics of killed journalists”, he said.
Since January, according to the PEC records, 7 media workers were killed in Ukraine, as well as another 7 in Iraq, and six in Syria.
Following the first three most dangerous countries comes Afghanistan, Brazil, Central African Republic and Pakistan with 4 journalists killed in each country.
Mexico, the Philippines, Honduras follow in rank with three journalists killed in each country.
Two journalists were killed in Cambodia, Libya, Paraguay and Somalia respectively.
While one journalist was killed in the following countries: Bangladesh, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, India Lebanon, Panama and Saudi Arabia.
By region the Middle East and North Africa lead as the most dangerous region with 17 journalists killed. Asia follows, 15 killed, Latin America 14 killed, Sub-Saharan Africa with 8 killed and Europe 7 killed.
The great majority of journalists were killed in conflict zones (41 out of 61).
In July, since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, already two media workers were killed in Gaza.PEC President Hedayat Abdel Nabi calls upon the international community to impose on Israel the implementation of the laws of war and Human Rights so as not to target media workers and media buildings, and to stop committing massacres against helpless civilians.
According to the PEC criteria, 129 journalists were killed in 2013 and 141 media workers in 2012.
Source. Press Emblem Campaign