Eighty six journalists were killed in 2022, UNESCO report

Eighty-six journalists were killed worldwide in 2022 according to the UNESCO Observatory of Killed Journalists report.

Of these 76 were male while 10 were female.

This marked an increase in journalist deaths compared to 55 deaths in 2021, 2020 (62) and 2019 (57). The report has not recorded any death of a journalist in 2023.

Latin America and the Caribbean was the deadliest region claiming the lives of 43 journalists, half of those killed. Mexico was the deadliest country in the region with 19 deaths.

Europe and North America saw 14 journalists lose their lives, with a majority (10) getting killed in Ukraine. Four were killed in Turkiye, Kazakhstan, Israel and the USA.

Asia and the Pacific region accounted for 20 deaths, six were killed in Pakistan while four were killed in Palestine.

The Arab states saw five journalists get killed while Africa had six journalists killed.

The collection of the number of deaths started in 1993 and it shows that since then 1,576 journalists have been killed worldwide.

Since the collection of the statistics began, in Eastern Africa, Kenya has accounted for four deaths while Somalia has accounted for 77 deaths. South Sudan has recorded 10 killings, Democratic Republic of Congo (15), Uganda (4), Tanzania (2), Rwanda (1), Burundi (1), Sudan (1) and Ethiopia (2).

According to an article by Lucinda Jordaan for WANIFRA, around half of the journalists killed in 2022, were off duty when they were targeted.

"These journalists were killed for a variety of reasons, including reprisals for reporting on organised crime, armed conflict or the rise of extremism, and covering sensitive subjects such as corruption, environmental crimes, abuse of power, and protests," she says in the article.