At least 60 reporters have been killed around the globe in 2014, an annual review by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Tuesday.
An “unusually high proportion” or about one-fourth of the international journalists have lost their lives in 2014 while reporting from the world’s trouble spots, the CPJ said.
According to the report, 44 percent of the reporters were targeted for murder.
The CPJ said the number of the journalists killed in 2014 decreased from 70 in 2013, but the past three years have been the deadliest since the organization started compiling such records in 1992.
The four-year crisis in Syria has been a major factor. The report said at least 17 journalists were killed in the Arab country in 2014, with at least 79 killed since the fighting began in 2011.
Five journalists and two media workers lost their lives in clashes in Ukraine between the government and pro-Russia forces.
The Israeli regime’s 50 days of war in the Gaza Strip over the summer saw at least four journalists and three media workers killed.
The New York-based organization revealed that around half of the journalists were killed in the Middle East in 2014, with 39 percent of them losing their lives in combat or crossfire.
Press TV also lost its correspondent Serena Shim this year. She died in a car accident in October as she was on a working mission in Turkey to cover the war in the strategic Syrian town of Kobani. Shim, an American citizen of Lebanese origin, was going back to her hotel from a report scene in the city of Suruç in Turkey's Urfa Province when their car collided with a heavy vehicle.
Maya Naser another Press TV correspondent was also killed at the hands of the militants in September 2012 in Damascus. He was shot and killed by a sniper while reporting on air.