Murderers of journalists let free in 13 countries

A recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists determined that at least 13 countries consistently allow their killers to get away with the murder of journalists, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

“The committee said governments in the 13 countries have consistently failed to solve murders where journalists were targeted from 1998 through 2007,” the article says. “There are at least 199 unsolved murders in these countries during that 10-year period – 79 in Iraq, 24 in the Philippines, at least 20 in Colombia, 14 in Russia, 9 in Sierra Leone, 8 in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan, 7 in Afghanistan and Mexico, and 5 in Somalia, Nepal and India.”

“The index was compiled by examining every nation in the world and calculating the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of their population,” the article added, citing Joel Simon, the committee’s executive director. “Only countries with five or more unsolved murders were included.”

The committee cites a lack of political will as the reason countries do not seek killers of journalists. It hopes that the compiled list will embarrass these governments and spur must-needed action on the hundreds of homicides in need of investigations and prosecutions.

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