A dangerous year for journalism

No year passes without challenges for journalists and affronts to press freedoms and 2009 has shown that conflict zones and elections provide as much danger as ever.

Two appalling events this year have highlighted these risks and made 2009 one of the most dangerous years for journalists. On 23 November, the largest ever massacre of journalists on a single day took place in the Phillipines. A total of 12 journalists and 18 others were killed by the private militia of a governor in the southern Philippines in election related violence. The second shocking event of the year was the massive restrictions on press freedoms in Iran during rallies disputing election results and the subsequent mass arrests of journalists and bloggers.

Press freedoms organisation, Reporters sans Frontières, says that 76 journalists have been killed this year and a further 573 arrested. Their annual report also shows that 1456 journalists had been physically assaulted or threatened this year, a 56% rise on 2008.

Furthermore, RSF claim that 1 blogger has been killed and an additional 151 bloggers and cyber-dissidents arrested, a 155% increase from 2008 figures. The press freedom report also notes that 61 bloggers had been physically assaulted.

The massacre of journalists in the Philippines, a dark day for press freedom, was condemned by RSF as "an incomprehensible bloodbath". The organisation said that "Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day,". Nonoy Espina, Vice-President of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said “The government must without question bring those responsible for this massacre to justice, not just the killers but also the masterminds, whoever they are.” The deaths in the Philippines along with 21 others made the country the most dangerous in the world for journalists. These deaths made up 75% of the 44 deaths in the Asia-Pacific region making it the most dangerous region, by numbers of deaths.

The most recent death of a journalist came only yesterday, when award-winning Canadian journalist, Michelle Lang, was killed in Afghanistan. The Calgary Herald reporter became the seventh female journalist to be killed this year and the first Canadian journalist to die in the war in Afghanistan. Lang was embedded with Canadian troops in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar and was killed by a roadside bomb whilst traveling in a Canadian military vehicle. Reporters sans Frontières said “Lang’s death just two days before the New Year is a cruel reminder of the dangers that journalists face in war zones,”.

Not only have journalists faced the threat of death or physically injury this year, 33 have been kidnapped over the past 12 months. Despite the endeavours to of journalists report from the most hostile of regions, 570 media have been censored this year, a 61% increase on last year.

Additionally, 157 journalists have gone into exile this year, most notably from Iran where 50 journalists fled and 27 who left Sri Lanka. Somalia also saw around 50 journalists leave along with dozens of others who sought refugee abroad from Eritrea, Mexico, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Colombia and Guinea. RSF described the number of exiled journalists as "a dangerous tendency and it must be very strongly condemned,".

Reporters sans Frontières rounded up this tragic year by saying "Three years have passed since the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1738 on the protection of journalists in conflict zones but governments still seem incapable of protecting reporters,".

'Arbeit macht Frei' Auschwitz sign stolen

The sign over the entrance to the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz, has been stolen.

The sign which reads 'Arbeis macht Frei', made in 1940 by Polish prisoners at the camp, was stolen in the earlier hours of Friday morning. Israel's Holocaust Museum branded the theft an 'act of war' and the Muzeum Auschwitz Memorial called it a 'desecration'.

The 5 metre long, 40kg sign reads 'Work will set you free' in English and police say it was removed between 3:30 and 5:00am on Friday morning.

It is not yet known why the sign was stolen, but police say that selling such a well known item would be very difficult. Avner Shalev, director of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial has speculated that the crime had been committed by Neo-Nazis.

A replica of the sign has been erected while the search continues and a 5,000-zloty ($1,700; £1,050) reward has been offered for information which leads to the arrest of the thieves.

The phrase was also used outside other Nazi concentration camps including Dachau and Sachsenhausen, although the sign at Auschwitz is the most well known. Hundreds of thousands of prisoners passed under the sign on entering the camp, most of whom were killed or worked to death. Over a million inmates were murdered at the camp, 90% of whom were Jewish.