The committee to protect journalists has issued its annual accounting of the journalists who were killed on the job last year or were targeted and killed because of their profession. CPJ tallies 71, but there is an asterisk on that number because those are only the victims it could confirm.
Even at that, it is a sobering list—from the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France last January to the targeting of a Virginia TV news crew on a routine assignment—and one that reminds us of the dangerous mission of trying to report on war and conflict around an increasingly dangerous globe, and sometimes the everyday dangers regardless of the assignment. Syria was the most dangerous location, with 13 deaths confirmed.
Perhaps most sobering—of those killed, 40% lost their lives at the hands of Islamic militant groups including Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
CPJ said that “broadcast reporter” was the most dangerous job, accounting for 25 of the deaths, with politics the most common beat of the victims, followed by war and human rights issues.
The list includes both the 71 journalists and three support staff members, but in either case only those that CPJ has investigated and confirmed represented journalists targeted while, or for, doing their jobs.
There were at least a couple dozen more journalists killed for which a motive has not been confirmed. Another 199 were imprisoned in 2015.
Here is the honor roll of the fallen:
Zakaria Ibrahim, Hindia Haji Mohamed, Guillaume Barreau-Decherf, Italo Eduardo Diniz Barros, Israel Goncalves Silva, Ahmed Abu al-Hamza, Batoul Mokhles al-Warrar, Zaman Mehsud, Mustaf Abdi Noor, Faisal Arefin Dipan, Fares Hamadi, Ibrahim Abd al-Qader, Jomaa Al-Ahmad (Abu al-Nour al-Halabi), Wasem Aledel, Obada Ghazal, Bilal Sharaf al-Deen, Yahya Abdul Hamid, George Abanga, Flor Alba Nunez Vargas, Adam Ward, Alison Parker, Niloy Neel, Gleydson Carvalho, Ruben Espinosa Becerril, Thaer al-Ajlani, Jalaa al-Abadi, Filadelfo Sanchez Sarmiento, Mohammed al-Asfar, Łukasz Masiak, Nasza Mława, Jagendra Singh, Ammar al-Shami, Djalma Santos da Conceicao, Abdullah Qabil, Youssef al-Ayzari, Evany Jose Metzker, Ananta Bijoy Das, Armando Saldana Morales, Firas al-Baher, John Kituyi, Daud Ali Omar, Thaer Al-Ali, Muftah al-Qatrani, Mohamed Shamsan, Humam Najjar (Abu Yazan al-Halabi), Soleil Balanga, Jamal Khalifeh, Washiqur Rahman Babu, Fadel al-Hadidi, Danilo Lopez, Noureddine Hashim, Gerardo Ceferino Servian, Serhiy Nikolayev, Avijit Roy, Kenji Goto, Randa George, Dalia Marko, Musa Mohamed, Boutros Martin, Adam Juma, Bernard Maris, Georges Wolinski, Jean Cabut (Cabu), Stephane Charbonnier (Charb), Bernard Verlhac (Tignous), Elsa Cayat, Moustapha Ourrad, Philippe Honore, Khaled al-Washli, Jose Moises Sanchez Cerezo and Naji Jerf.
Media workers killed: Arshad Ali Jafri, Monir Aklan, Hazzam Mohamed Zeid.
Journalists killed, motive unconfirmed: Ahmed Mohamed al-Mousa, Orislandio Timoteo Araujo, Jose Bernardo, Christophe Nkezabahizi, Hemant Yadav, Paulo Machava, Cosme Maestrado, Teodoro Escanilla, Gregorio Ybanez, Peter Julius Moi, Rasim Aliyev, Akshay Singh, Juan Mendoza Delgado, Sandeep Kothari, Pow James Raeth, Melinda “Mei” Magsino, Abdel Karim al-Khaiwani, Federico Salazar, Edgar Quintero, Ivanildo Viana, Luis Carlos Peralta Cuellar, Maurito Lim, Nerlita Ledesma, Fayez Abu Halawa and Dirar al-Jahad.
