Journalists – Living in a dangerous world

By Dr. Hassan Humeida
KIEL, GERMANY

(1)

According to the new reports, and most recently in late 2021, it is clear that the lives of journalists worldwide are in danger. Controversially, this news comes from the International Federation of Journalists. So, it is clear here how serious the threat to this professional group is.

(2)

Journalism as a free, beautiful and fully respected profession should serve to reproduce current and relevant news and reporting correctly, in good time and conscientiously and to make this available to the recipients in a form so that they can be informed.

(3)

The reproduction of the required information is in most cases surrounded by dangers and fraught with great risks. These range from difficulties that journalists around the world get in the way of keeping them from getting their jobs done to death.

(4)

It is not uncommon for journalists’ equipment like cameras to be destroyed or smashed by anger attacks, for their living and work institutions to be searched and looted and, in many situations, for mental and physical injuries to be deliberately inflicted.

(5)

It should be noted here that journalists are in the service of society, apart from the modest remuneration they receive for their work. They create real facts, uncover situations in systems, institutions and inform societies about harm and mischief.

(6)

The perpetrators do not like such things and force them to show that they are real perpetrators. Real perpetrators who not only pretend, but who are also overpowering. They can break the law by following their threats into action, by persecuting and even killing journalists.

(7)

What an impoverished and helpless world we live in, when the people who watch over and protect society are treated without respect, badly insulted, threatened, made to choose jail or death, persecuted and killed. Ultimately, their fault is telling the bare truth about things.

(8)

If we look at the statistics for 2021 and the affliction of journalists, we find that 46 journalists were killed that year. The distribution of victims due to deliberate attacks is as follows: 7 journalists in Mexico, 6 in Afghanistan, 4 in Yemen, 4 in India and 3 in Pakistan.

(9)

The number of journalists imprisoned in 2021 is 488, thus more than 20% as in 2020. Worldwide 60 of them are female journalists in prisons and 212 of the detainees are in China, Myanmar and Belarus while 65 journalists are currently considered kidnapped

(10)

According to the 2021 report by the International Federation of Journalists, it is high time to think about how best to protect journalists worldwide. Many drop out of life, leaving behind families with children who need everything and in most cases without security.

Email: hassan_humeida@yahoo.de

Dr. Hassan Humeida