It is that time of the year again: the time to count the number of journalists killed in the course of their duty this year. This year’s report by Reporters Without Borders on slain journalists highlights persistent concerns, and the data make for sombre reading. Sixty-seven media professionals were killed this year, nearly half of them by Israel as they reported from a blood-soaked Gaza. It is not as if armed forces alone put scribes in the proverbial line of fire. In Mexico, there was an alarming spike in organised crime cartels killing journalists. What is worrying is that this trend seems to be spreading all over Latin America: 24% of the murdered journalists hailed from South America. There were, of course, other ways of stifling the news fraternity; incarceration being a preferred method of the State. As of December 1, over 500 journalists, the RSF says, have been detained across 47 countries. China, Russia, and Myanmar, havens of totalitarian regimes, unsurprisingly lead the way in this transgression. But even democracies are not without claws. The harassment experienced by journalists in India — especially those working in Kashmir — and, more recently, in Bangladesh prove this point. Then, there are those whose whereabouts remain unknown: 72% of the missing journalists hail from Mexico and Syria.

These trends of violence, when seen in the broader context, reveal some worrying facts. It is evident that the weakening of democracy around the world is having a deleterious impact on those — people and institutions — involved in the gathering of news. There is an allied concern. The retreat of democracy seems to have also weakened the commitment on the part of global powers and agencies to accord protection to media personnel. This has two ramifications. First, as conflicts rise around the world, journalists are being rendered increasingly vulnerable in these troubled spots. Second, the institutional failure to ensure the rights of journalists accords a sense of impunity to their adversaries. Another — equally worrying — trend seems to be the willingness among State and non-State actors to turn scribes into pawns: consequently, the latter often suffer collateral damage during crisis. A free press is, quite correctly, cited as an ideal that deserves protection in this age of post-Truth. Journalists deserve the same degree of safety. Without journalists, there can be no freedom of the press or of information itself.