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LATIN AMERICA | 29-10-2019 15:24

Mexico and Brazil top list of most dangerous countries for journalists, new report shows

A recently released study from the Committee to Protect Journalists revealed 13 countries with the most journalist deaths that never get prosecuted. Mexico and Brazil top the list, while Colombia falls off it.

Mexico and Brazil were among the 13 countries in the world with the most impunity in crimes against journalists, according to a study published Tuesday from the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ). 

Corruption, weak institutions and the lack of political urgency to investigate these crimes are all factors behind that impunity, the report said. 

CPJ is a non-profit in New York that promotes freedom of expression the world. 

The "2019 global impunity indicator" spanned the last decade and didn't include deaths of journalists during armed conflict or deaths that took place during potentially dangerous events like riots or violent protests. 

In the ranking, based on the number of assassination of journalists without resolution since 2009, Mexico is second, with 30 cases, after the Philippines with 41. Brazil, with 15 cases, sits in ninth place. 

"Mexico, to date is the deadliest country for journalists this year (it already has five documented cases), and it has seemed to worsen its impunity almost every year since 2008, when the drug cartels started a terror campaign against media," CPJ said. 

"Of at least the 31 journalist murders that have taken place in Mexico during this period of the index, the authorities have only issued one charge," it added. 

As of the end of August 2019, 318 journalists were killed because of their work around the world in the last decade. In 86 percent of those cases, no perpetrator was ever prosecuted successfully. 

The study highlighted the fact that Colombia was off the list this past year.. 

"In December, President Iván Duque announced that the leader of a drug trafficking group accused of assassinating two journalists and his driver were killed in a joint military-police operation near the border with Ecuador," the report said. 

South Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, Nigeria and India round out the list of 13 countries with the worst impunity indicators. 

These countries have appeared various times since the CPJ completed the index in 2008 and seven have been included each year. 

--AFP 

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