103 Journalists Slain in 1994, Report Says

At least 103 journalists were killed last year, a media group reported Tuesday, describing 1994 as “a terrible year in the history of journalism.”

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said in its annual report that 40 more journalists were slain last year than in 1993. At least 130 other journalists were jailed for reasons linked to their profession, the report said.

The group said that most of the United Nations’ 185 members “censor, jail, torture or even kill troublesome journalists” with impunity. It said only 50 U.N. member states respected press freedom.

“It is no longer stray bullets or mines which kill journalists,” the report said. “From now on, extremists want to prevent them from describing what they see.”

The report said 48 journalists in Rwanda--half the country’s press corps--were killed in 1994. In Algeria, 35 journalists have been slain since May, 1993.

The targeting of journalists is “often encouraged by an increasingly diffuse ‘culture of impunity,’ ” the report noted. “For more than a hundred journalists assassinated in 1994, fewer than five culprits have been identified.”