23 journalists died in violence in South Asia in 2013

Around 23 media persons lost their lives last year in attacks targeting them in South Asia out of which 12 were killed in India alone, according to a report on Press Freedom in South Asia.
In its report for the period May 2013- April 2014, the International Federation Journalists (IFJ) has said there have been 11 more such killings in South Asia till May this year.
"The most disturbing development is the increasingly targeted nature of violence in both Pakistan and India," the report said.
The report also noted that several cases of killing of journalists remained unsolved and over the past year impunity continued to be a major threat to press freedom across South Asia.

"The 2014 Impunity Index, published by the Committee to Protect Journalists, revealed Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India as the worst offenders on impunity in the region," the report said.
It said that Sri Lanka ranked number four on the list with nine unsolved cases, Afghanistan ranked sixth with five unsolved cases, Pakistan ranked ninth with 22 unsolved cases and India ranked 13th with seven unsolved cases.

In its chapter on India, the report said that security continued to be a concern for journalists in the country. It also mentioned several cases of violence against media-persons.
The report said that a veteran journalist was hacked to death in a public place in Basaguda town in December 2013. It said that his killing was the fifth of a journalist in a period of three years in Chhatisgarh.

The report also mentioned the deaths of a news cameramen and freelancers in the mob violence in Muzaffarnagar in 2013.
The report also mentioned the case of a 22-year-old photojournalist who was brutally assaulted and gangraped in Mumbai in August 2013 among several cases of violence against media persons.
It said that the lack of security for women journalists on duty is matched by the lack of in house mechanism to deal with sexual harassment at the workplace.