Russia is the leader in the number of journalists killed in Europe

In Russia, more journalists die in the line of duty than anywhere else in Europe. This follows from the report of the international organization “Reporters Without Borders”, published on Friday. In the world, the most dangerous country for journalists is Iraq, followed by several other countries in the Middle East.

“Reporters Without Borders” note that at least 37 mass media workers have been killed in Russia since Russian President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2001. The most high-profile case was the murder of Novaya Gazeta correspondent Anna Politkovskaya in October 2006. Politkovskaya wrote about the political situation in Chechnya and was shot dead in the doorway of her home. The hired killers appeared before the court, but the perpetrators of the crime were never found.

The report also notes that journalists have been killed in areas of hostilities in Ukraine, and not only in the past year. According to Reporters Without Borders, 20 media workers were killed there over the past 20 years, eight of them after the start of Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

At the same time, the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko reported in June 2022 that only since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine, 32 journalists from different countries of the world have died.

On a global scale, Iraq remains the most dangerous country for journalistic work. Since 2003, 300 press workers have died there. 280 journalists were killed in Syria during the same period. They are followed by Afghanistan, Yemen, the Palestinian Authority and Somalia in the list of the most dangerous countries.

In total, since 2003, 1,657 journalists have died in the world while performing their professional duty. Some of them died while working in the war zone. Others became victims of contract killings because of their professional activities.