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17:17 GMT
BRUSSELS, April 30 (KUNA) -- The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Thursday said that journalism is under attack from several fronts across the globe in 2015, through repressive press laws, arbitrary detention as well as killings.
According to latest figures for 2015, 44 journalists have lost their lives since the beginning of the year, the IFJ said in a statement on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day, celebrated on May 3.
The IFJ denounced the sheer targeting of journalists across the globe that is making this period the most dangerous in the past decades.
It cited, among others, the Charlie Hebdo Paris attack in which 10 journalists were gunned down in January, the recent slaughter of 5 journalists in Libya and five more slain in Yemen as well as the targeting of their colleagues in the Philippines, Colombia and Guatemala.
"In almost every corner of the world, journalists are targeted, brutalised and put to death," said IFJ President Jim Boumelha.
"In the first 3 months of 2015 we have met the third of last years' total death, not to mention harassment, intimidation and imprisonments of our colleagues," he noted.
To celebrate World Press Freedom Day, the IFJ and its affiliates will raise their voices for press freedom and participate in a number of events around the globe.
The Brussels-based IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 134 countries. (end)
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