The Committee to Protect Journalists released its Global Impunity Index on Thursday, a report that ranks countries based on the most unsolved targeted killings of journalists.
For the first time since the CPJ began compiling data in 2008, Iraq is not ranked the country with the most. It's second to Somalia. But before you start to think the situation is improving for reporters in Iraq, the reasons are far from encouraging.
The committee compiles the unsolved murders of journalists over the past 10 years. This year, the first two years of the Iraq war are not included in those statistics, a time that was incredibly dangerous for reporters.
Daesh (ISIS) ironically drops the murders down; its total control over information in Iraq makes it difficult for CPJ to confirm the motive to targeted killings of journalists. Daesh, however, is the same reason Syria's ranking moved down, from fifth in last year's report to third this year.
Convictions for the killings of journalists only occurred in three of the 14 countries listed in the index, and that includes Iraq. There was a conviction for the murder of a monthly magazine's editor-in-chief in Iraqi Kurdistan. But the military commander who gave the order was later acquitted.
Here are the top five ranks, according to CPJ.
1. Somalia: 2.857 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants
2. Iraq: 2.414 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants
3. Syria: 0.496 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants
4. The Philippines: 0.444 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants
5. South Sudan: 0.420 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants
By Hayat Norimine
