REPORT – Journalists killed since 1992

Pakistan remained the most dangerous country for journalists with more deaths recorded there than any other country according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Of the 42 killings with a confirmed motive, seven of those were in Pakistan down slightly from 2010. Mexican journalist Elizabeth Macías Castro, the only women recorded on the list of confirmed motives, was the first woman recorded by the CPJ to have “direct relation to journalism published on social media”.

Despite Pakistan heading the list as the most dangerous country for reporters two years in a row, Iraq still remains the country with the highest number of journalists killed since 1992, with 151 deaths with a confirmed motive recorded as taking place in the country.

The death of Sunday Mirror defence correspondent Rupert Hamer early last year shone a light again on how dangerous it is to be a journalist. No other British journalists or media workers are recorded on the CPJ list for 2011.

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Since 1992, over 880 journalists have been killed around the world in cases where the CPJ has been able to confirm the motive. They have come from all over the globe – and the data collected shows that reporters are increasingly at risk – with Iraq responsible for the biggest single number of deaths.

The research by the CPJ shows 43% of all deaths are murders and state that 22% are tortured before death. The bar chart above shows how many deaths of journalists (with a motive) were recorded each year.

Those killed with unconfirmed motives and all killings of media workers since 1992 can be found in the spreadsheet. We have done some of our own analysis in the table below to show which country is recorded as the most dangerous by each year with Iraq leading the overall total.

Data summary