49 Journalists Killed This Year

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Dec 17, 6:30AM EST

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49 Journalists Killed This Year — © Srongkrod / Getty Images

According to Reporters Without Borders, 49 journalists were killed in 2019 around the world. The number is high but is the lowest in 16 years. The figure was a drop of 44% from 2018. Other data about journalist safety was not as positive, the same group discovered.

A total of 389 journalists are in prison and 57 are being held hostage. More journalists in “countries at peace” are being killed than in the past. This includes areas one country adjacent to the United States: Mexico. Ten journalists were killed there this year. The organization reports, “As a result of these dual trends – less deadly war zones, but countries at peace as dangerous as ever – more journalists (59%) are now being killed in countries at peace than in war zones.” Reporters Without Borders defines many of the countries at peace as democracies, although in most the government does not, or cannot, prevent lawlessness.

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The number of journalists killed in “countries at war,” which include Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, was pegged at 17, which was down from 34 in 2018.

Of the 389 journalists held hostage, close to 50% are in three countries. These are China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Each is known for repressive regimes and lack of personal freedoms, including freedom of speech. China holds a third of “arbitrary detained journalists,” which essentially means no reason has been given for their detention, at least not to the public.

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While the number of journalists killed this year has dropped, the figure should be zero.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.