The number of journalists jailed around the world increased more than 20% in 2011, mainly because of government crackdowns in the Middle East and North Africa, a nonprofit organization said Thursday.
The International Press Institute warned in Vienna of the dangerous situation that twelve Latin American journalists are undergoing having received death threats, and called con authorities to take measures and avoid further killings.
Participants at a UN forum that met in Paris have drafted an action plan to improve the safety of journalists and ensure that crimes committed against them do not go unpunished.
Organized crime and authoritarian governments have become the main enemies for freedom of expression in the Americas said Gonzalo Marroquin, president of the Inter American Press Association.
Latin America was the most dangerous region for the press in 2010, with 35 of the 105 murders of journalists that occurred worldwide, according to the Swiss-based Press Emblem Campaign.
At least 90 journalists (30 in Latinamerica) have been killed doing their job so far this year, a 25% increase on the same period of 2009, the media watchdog Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) said this week. PEC has also called on the UN Humans Rights Council to urgently take up the matter.