A deadly year for journalists

So far in 2012, 88 journalists and 47 bloggers were killed worldwide while on the job, according to the report released late Tuesday. These figures are the highest the organization has ever released since their first yearly report in 1995. In addition to the 137 journalists killed, six non-editorial employees were also killed.

"The huge number of victims is mainly contributed to the Syrian conflict, violence by the Taliban in Pakistan and the civil war in Somalia," Reporters Without Borders (RSF) CEO Michael Rediske said Wednesday in Berlin.

Compared to 2011, which had 67 journalist deaths, the number of journalists killed in 2012 has risen by a third.

Particularly dramatic was the increase in the number of blogger and citizen journalist victims, which jumped from 5 in 2011 to 47 killed in 2012.

Most deaths in the past year took placer in Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, Mexico and Brazil, according to the report.

Worldwide, 1,993 journalists were attacked or threatened compared to 1,959 in 2011. However the number of kidnappings was almost halved from 71 to 38 cases. Arrests also declined by 16 percent to 879 registered cases.

hc/mz (Reuters, dapd)