8. Syria

International attention to the uprising against the Assad regime has catapulted Syria into the top ten. 



The majority of killed journalists were Syrian citizens working in television and Internet media, although 15% were foreign correspondents.  

Most died in combat crossfire while covering human rights, war, and politics.  

Half of all suspected perpetrators were government and military officials, with political groups making up the other half. So far, all have committed their killings with total impunity.

Anas al-Tarsha, aka ‘Anas al-Homsi' is one of these victims. He was killed in Homs, Syria while filming the shelling of the city's Qarabees district.  

Anas was the fourth journalist killed that week. He was 17 years old.


9. India

Age-old ethnic tensions and a war over Kashmir mean India can boil over at any time. 



Political groups are thought to be responsible for nearly half of all journalist murders since 1992, yet they commit these killings with a 94% complete impunity rating.  

Victims cover a wide range of beats, working primarily in print, some television, and very little radio.

M. L. Manchanda was one such victim in radio. According to the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial, Manchanda was beheaded by Punjabi militant group Babbar Khalsa.  

He was kidnapped because he was the director of a radio station in Patiala, and the radicals demanded that all reports should be broadcast in Punjabi instead of Hindi.  

Manchanda was beheaded when the government refused to comply with the demand— soon thereafter, his torso was found in Patial and his head in Ambala.   


10. Mexico

Since 1992, 89% of Mexico's killed journalists were murdered, mostly by drug cartels and criminal gangs operating with near-total impunity. 



As could be expected from the failing drug war in Mexico, the victims' beats typically focused on crime, with some overlap for covering government corruption.

One such victim was Luis Emanuel Ruiz Carrillo, a 21 year old photographer working for La Prensa. He was kidnapped along with his cousin and a popular TV show host.  

All three were later found dead with gunshot wounds to the head, next to fresh graffiti warning “Stop cooperating with the Zetas”.  

The Zetas are a major drug cartel, and operate with such freedom in Mexico that an armed Zeta walked into the police's active crime scene and moved the bodies to a different location.