Sri Lanka ranked as 3rd most dangerous place for media
http://www.huanqiu.com 来源：新华网 网友评论215条进入论坛 2007-12-19 14:21
COLOMBO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka has been ranked as the third most dangerous place for the media in the world, with seven journalists being killed in 2007, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.
The Daily Mirror quoted a Geneva based media watchdog Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) as saying that due to the intensity of the civil war in the island country, seven journalists were killed this year as against four last year.
The PEC said record numbers of journalists have been killed around the world in 2007, with at least 110 dying in 27 countries.
About two thirds of the deaths this year took place in major conflict zones, such as Iraq, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the PEC.
For the fifth straight year Iraq ranked as the most dangerous place for the media, with 50 journalists being killed this year.
Somalia came second to Iraq which witnessed eight journalists being killed this year as against one last year.
The PEC, founded in June 2004 by a group of journalists from several countries based in Geneva, aims to strengthen the legal protection and safety of journalists in zones of conflict and civil unrest.
The conflict between Sri Lanka's government troops and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) began to escalate at the end of 2005, resulting in the killing of over 5,000 people during last two years.
Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting the government since the mid-1980s to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east.
