India remains a dangerous country for the working journalists and so is its North-eastern Assam province. If India with over a billion population records 27 journalists killed in two decades, Assam (with three crore populace) shares major incidents of journalist killings in the country in all these years. The trouble torn State lost over 20 editor-journalist-correspondents in the last two decades, where no conviction has yet been made. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the New York-based international media rights body has recently disclosed that 864 working journalists around the world have been killed in different incidents since 1992. It also reveals that India is one of the 13 risky countries where journalists are murdered on a recurring basis and governments are unable (or unwilling) to prosecute the killers. Other nations, where journalists are targeted regularly for deaths and governments fail to solve the crimes include Iraq, Somalia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Afghanistan, Nepal, Mexico, Russia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Brazil. Among the journalist victims, 547 of them were killed with complete impunity. The CPJ also reveals that India is one of the first 20 countries where journalists are murdered on a recurring basis and governments are unable (or unwilling) to prosecute the killers. India officially records 15 unsolved cases of journalists killing with impunity. Other nations, where journalists are targeted regularly for deaths and governments fail to solve the crimes include Iraq (unsolved cases:93) , Philippines (64) , Algeria (57) , Colombia (35) , Russia (29) , Pakistan (20) , Mexico (20) , Somalia (18) , Rwanda (15) , Tajikistan (14) , Turkey (14) , Brazil (13) , Sri Lanka ( 10) , Sierra Leone (9) , Afghanistan ( 9) , Bangladesh (8) , Angola (7) , Cambodia (7) Peru (6) etc. The CPJ's Impunity Index 2011 , compiled as part of the organization's global campaign against impunity, indicates that local journalists remain the victims in the vast majority of unsolved cases throughout the world. The CPJ research shows that the deadly, unpunished violence against journalists often leads to vast self-censorship in the rest of the press corps. More over, the situation finally compels many journalists to avoid sensitive topics, leave the profession, or flee their homeland to escape violent retribution, informed CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. Working in insurgency stricken Assam, which publishes nearly 25 morning daily newspapers and supports 6 local satellite news channels is increasingly becoming dangerous for working journalists.
