This year saw an escalation of violence and threats to journalists around the world, and the numbers are chilling. In a year-end report from Reporters Without Borders, 66 journalists were killed, 119 kidnapped, and 178 imprisoned over the last year.
The researchers said the report “highlights an evolution in the nature of violence against journalists” and a new, troubling trend of carefully staged threats and beheadings for political gain.
The report highlights a handful of emblematic cases, including the executions of James Foley and Steven Sotloff, the sentencing of Saudi citizen-journalist Raef Badawi to 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes for “insulting Islam,” the Islamic State killing of Iraqi cameraman Raad Azaoui along with 20 other Iraqis, the Dec. 5 arrest of Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismaïlova and the trial of Chinese journalist Gao Yu for charges of sharing state secret with foreign media.
The organization said twice as many journalists fled into exile this year compared to 2013.
Syria had the highest number of murders with 15, followed by Palestine and Ukraine with 7 and 6, respectively. China and Eritrea led in the number of jailed journalists, with 29 and 28. Ukraine, Libya and Syria vied for the top number of kidnappings, at 33, 29 and 27.
Click here to read or download the entire report.