2015: 69 Journalists Died Around The World On The Job

A new report by a New York-based organization has revealed that sixty-nine journalists were killed around the world on the job in 2015. Twenty-eight of them were slain by Islamic militant groups, including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Those killed by Islamic extremist groups this year included eight journalists killed in an attack in Paris in January at the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attack in which two gunmen massacred 12 people. They said it was in “revenge for the prophet.”

In October, two Syrian journalists, Fares Hamadi and Ibrahim Abd al-Qader were killed by Islamic State militants.

While some of the deaths were among reporters covering conflict zones, journalists in several countries also were killed after reporting on sensitive subjects. At least 28 of the reporters who were killed had received threats before their deaths.

In Brazil, Gleydson Carvalho, a radio broadcaster who often criticized local police and politicians for purported wrongdoing, was shot and killed while presenting his afternoon radio show in August.

Among the 69 journalists killed were reporter Alison Parker and video journalist Adam Ward, of Roanoke, Virginia, TV station WDBJ, who were fatally shot in August by former co-worker Vester Lee Flanagan II during a live broadcast. Their interview subject, Vicki Gardner, was wounded. Flanagan fatally shot himself five hours later after a police chase.

Other countries with several journalists killed included Bangladesh, where extremist groups are suspected in the deaths of four bloggers and a publisher; and South Sudan, where five journalists traveling with a local official were killed in an ambush by unidentified gunmen.

The deaths in Bangladesh included the February attack on Bangladeshi-American blogger and writer Avijit Roy with meat cleavers on a crowded street in Dhaka, the capital. The killings have raised concerns that religious extremism is taking hold in the traditionally moderate South Asian country.

Iraq, Yemen and Brazil also saw at least five journalists killed in 2015.