The number of journalists killed will increase by 50% in 2022 in the world, 86 dying last year, that is approximately „one every four days”, UNESCO denounced on Monday, quoted by France Presse and Agerpres.

The Paris-based UN agency lamented a „reversal of the positive trend” in recent years, when the number of such assassinations dropped to an average of 58 between 2019 and 2021, compared to 99 in 2018.

„The sudden increase in the number of journalists killed in 2022 is alarming,” UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay expressed regret. „The authorities must step up their efforts to put an end to these crimes and ensure that the perpetrators are convicted,” she added.

Of the 86 journalists who died last year – compared to 55 in 2021 -, 19 were killed in Mexico, ten in Ukraine and nine in Haiti, the three bloodiest countries for the profession, UNESCo points out.

About half of them „were not killed in the exercise of their profession, but when they were traveling, they were at home, in parking lots or in other public places where they were targeted”, the UN statement emphasizes.

But „it is really the consequence of their work as journalists, the fact that they investigated sensitive subjects”, insisted a UNESCO official quoted by AFP, stressing that in some countries „there is no safe place for journalists”.

Agerpres