The Committee to Protect Journalists says that the last three years have been the most deadly for journalists and media workers since it has been tracking that statistic, with at least 60 journalists and 11 support staff members killed in 2014 while doing their jobs, with almost half of the journalists deaths coming in the Middle East.
Those were only the ones CPJ could confirm. There are also 18 other journalists killed with motive still unknown.
According to the latest CPJ report, the most deaths in 2014 were of broadcast reporters, at 35% of the total, followed by photographers and camera operators.
More than a quarter of those killed were members of the international press, double the percentage of correspondents in recent years. Generally, the vast majority of journalists killed are "local people covering local stories," said CPJ, but the increased percentage of international journalists killed came with the increasingly volatile nature of war zones in the Middle East, Afghanistan and the Ukraine, it said, and the fact that Westerners are often deliberately targeted.
Arguably the highest-profile deaths were those of the journalists murdered by ISIS, but the deaths also included reporters and media workers—11 translators, administrative staffers, translators, drivers and other media support staff were also killed—covering the conflict in Israel and the occupied territories and the deaths of five journalists and media workers in Ukraine were the first in that country since 2011. Then there were the journalists and media workers apparently murdered while trying to cover the Ebola outbreak.
"This is the most dangerous time to be a journalist we have ever seen," said CPJ executive director Joel Simon of the new report. "Historically, local journalists have always borne the brunt of the danger, and this is still the case. But the increased attacks on international journalists show that in the current environment, everyone is a target."
