The number of journalists killed in the line of duty in 2019 fell by more than half to 25, compared to 56 in 2018, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The number is the lowest since 2002, which saw at least 21 journalists killed because of their work, but CPJ notes that it continues to investigate the motive in the deaths of another 25 journalists.
Three high-profile murders of journalists in 2017 and 2018 may have brought enough attention to the issue to discourage such crimes or attempts, according to CPJ: the October 2017 death of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta as she investigated corruption relating to the so-called Panama Papers; the shooting in Slovakia of Jan Kuciak, who had been investigating the Italian mafia; and the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
“It is impossible to know whether the high-profile nature of these murders and their consequences has deterred any would-be killers,” the group adds, noting that even as murders decline, self-censorship may be rising in nations where previous murders of journalists have gone unpunished, such as Russia or Pakistan.
The deadliest country for journalists overall in 2019 was Syria, which saw at least seven deaths, three as a result of Turkish airstrikes in the northeast of the country, including Kurdish Turkish documentary filmmaker Vedat Erdemci. Despite this, civilian deaths in the country are down from 2018.
In Mexico, meanwhile, the murders of journalists increased in 2019, when five journalists were killed for their work, compared to four in 2018. CPJ is currently investigating six more murders in Mexico to determine if they qualify.
At least two Mexican victims had applied for protection under the nation’s Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, according to CPJ. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has vowed to give the historically underfunded, short-staffed program “unlimited resources.”
In Afghanistan, the deadliest country for journalists in 2018, civilian deaths stayed roughly level this year, and CPJ did not record any journalists killed in the line of duty in 2019. A news operation manager said journalists in the area have become more hesitant to cover explosions after nine were killed in an ISIS suicide attack last year.