Year in review: At least 42 journalists killed doing their jobs in 2017, CPJ says

A graphic by the Committee to Protect Journalists show the deadliest areas for journalists in 2017.  CPJ

Around the world, at least 42 journalists were killed doing their jobs in 2017, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
 

Of these, 17 were reprisal killings connected to the reporting work of the journalists, such as the murder of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who reported on corruption and was killed by a car bomb in October.
 

A third of those killed in 2017 were freelancers. The CPJ notes that there are extra dangers for those journalists who do not have the backing of a news organization. Such was the case with Kim Wall, a Swedish freelancer who died in August on a submarine where she was interviewing inventor Peter Madsen. Madsen is facing murder charges in connection with her death.
 

Iraq and Syria topped the list for the most dangerous places for journalists to report, with a combined 15 deaths in 2017. One was Arkan Sharifi, stabbed to death in October after eight men who identified themselves as belonging to a Shia militia coalition broke into his home.

Outside of conflict zones, Mexico was the deadliest place to work as a journalist, with six journalists killed in 2017. One of those was Javier Valdez Cárdenas, a reporter and co-founder of an investigative weekly that published stories about organized crime. Valdez was shot in May in the Sinaloa region, known for its drug cartels.

A full list of the 42 journalists killed in 2017, including biographies, can be found on the CPJ website.