Islamic Radical Groups Responsible for 40% of Journalists’ Deaths in 2015

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Islamic radical groups, such as al-Qaeda and Daesh (Islamic State), are responsible for 40 percent of journalists’ deaths in 2015, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Tuesday.

"Of 69 journalists killed for their work in 2015, 40 percent died at the hands of Islamic militant groups such as Al-Qaeda and Islamic State. More than two-thirds of the total killed were singled out for murder," CPJ said in a report, published on its website.

The report said that radical groups killed 28 journalists this year, nine of them were killed in France, which became the second most dangerous country for the press in 2015 after Syria.

CPJ added that the number of journalists’ deaths in 2015 was higher than in the previous year, with 61 killed while performing their duty in 2014.

The report explained that the declined number of journalists killed in Syria this year reflects the reduced number of press-related professionals working in the country, as many local journalists fled their homeland, while international media outlets preferred not to send staff to the conflict-torn country.

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the murder of eight journalists at a French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo office on January 7, after the magazine published cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.

Daesh, outlawed in Russia and many other countries, on Sunday killed prominent Syrian journalist Naji Jerf in Turkey, known for his documentaries about the terrorist group’s atrocities. However, the death was not counted in the report.

In October, the same radical group murdered two other Syrian journalists, Fares Hamadi and Ibrahim Abd al-Qader, who fled for Turkey, and these are only few of the killings that were claimed by militant groups in 2015.