A/HRC/20/22 statistics on the killing of journalists, especially when measured over time, provide an important and compelling starting point from which to better understand the problem, and to identify ways to reduce the danger. 29. A number of civil society groups are doing the important work of tracking workrelated deaths of journalists around the world. The data differs according to what is being monitored. Some, like the International News Safety Institute (INSI) 9 and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)10, keep track of all safety-related aspects, including vehicle accidents and illness, while others, such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)11 and Reporters Without Borders (RWB),12 take a more narrow approach, focusing more on instances where journalists suffer violent deaths directly related to their profession. 30. According to CPJ, as at 28 March, 909 journalists had been killed since 1992. In 566 of these cases there has been total impunity. 13 31. The 20 deadliest places during that period, according to CPJ, were as follows: Iraq: 151 killings; Philippines: 72; Algeria: 60; Russian Federation: 53; Colombia: 43; Pakistan: 42; Somalia: 39; India: 28; Mexico: 27; Afghanistan: 24; Brazil: 21; Turkey: 20; Bosnia and Herzegovina: 19; Sri Lanka: 19; Rwanda: 17; Tajikistan: 17; Sierra Leone: 16; Bangladesh: 12; Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory: 10; and Nigeria: 10.14 32. The causal correlation between impunity and the killing of journalists is evident from the fact that the countries where the highest number of journalists are killed are also, almost without exception, those with the highest level of impunity. 15 Impunity is a major, if not the main, cause of the high number of journalists killed every year. 33. Two thirds of these deaths occur outside armed conflict. About 40 per cent of the journalists killed covered politics; 34 per cent war; 21 per cent corruption; 15 per cent crime; and 15 per cent human rights.16 The overriding problem is murder, not accidents. Freelance journalists are at a much higher risk than those who work for news agencies. 34. It is clear from these statistics that the most common profile of a journalist who is killed is that of a local as opposed to foreign correspondent, who covers politics or corruption for a newspaper or a radio station. While the plight of the foreign war correspondent attracts the most attention, and is worthy of such concern, special attention should also be paid to the question of how to alter the fate of the local newspaper journalist who drives home after work and is intercepted by two people on a motorbike, one holding a gun. It is a threat to the human rights project as whole when a blogger is tracked and her head is found next to her keyboard with a threatening note. 35. While the practice of killing the messenger is not new, the nature of the threat changes when society changes. Increased fatalities among photojournalists are a worrying trend, indicating that the impact of visual imagery is considered to have become more threatening. Likewise there have been a number of high-profile killings of environmental 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 See www.newssafety.org. See www.ifj.org. See www.cpj.org. See www.rsf.org. CPJ statistics on the killing of journalists, 1992-2012, available from www.cpj.org/killed. Ibid. CPJ 2011 Impunity Index, available from www.cpj.org/reports/2011/06/2011-impunity-index-gettingaway-murder.php#index. See www.cpj.org/killed. Some overlap results in a total of more than 100 per cent. 7