Watchdog: 102 journalists killed in 2010

VIENNA—A total of 102 journalists were killed in 2010, eight fewer than the year before, a media watchdog said Monday.

Asia, where 40 reporters were slain, was the most dangerous region in the world for journalists, followed by Latin America where 32 perished, the International Press Institute said in its annual World Press Freedom Review.

Pakistan, with 16 deaths, was the most lethal country in the world. Mexico and Honduras, meanwhile, accounted for almost a quarter of all killings, with 12 and 10 deaths.

“Although the number of journalists who died in 2010 represented a drop from 2009’s all-time high (of 110 deaths), it was in some ways worse than previous tallies because no large number could be tied to a major war or a single high-fatality incident,” the Vienna-based IPI, which has kept a so-called death watch since 1997, said in a statement.

While 15 reporters died in sub-Saharan Africa last year, eight perished in the Middle East and North Africa. That number included six deaths in Iraq.

Seven journalists died in Europe, including two in Russia and one each in Greece, Bulgaria, Belarus, Latvia and Turkey.

Overall, the past decade has seen the slaying of 788 journalists, IPI said. Iraq, the Philippines and Colombia ranked as the most deadly with 177, 96 and 50 killings respectively.