Report: 60 Journalists Were Murdered in 2014

The annual report for the Committee to Protect Journalists reveals that at least 60 journalists around the world were killed during 2014.

Of that number, 44% were reportedly targeted for murder, according to the Associated Press. CPJ has been compiling data and statistics since 1992 and noted that the past three years have been the deadliest the organization has seen. CPJ reported that 70 journalists were killed in 2013.

The deaths of at least 18 other journalists are reportedly still being investigated. CPJ only includes deaths that resulted from “hostile action.”

The highest occurrences of deaths took place in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, and the fifty-day conflict between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Some 80 journalists have reportedly been abducted in Syria alone since 2011.

Two of the most wrenching murders were carried out and recorded in Syria by Islamic State (ISIS) militants. They were the brutal beheadings of American freelance journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

The Central African Republic saw the first killing of a journalist this year as an unprecedented, devastating conflict between Christians and Muslims has torn the region apart. So far, at least 5,000 people have been killed.

Adelle Nazarian is on Twitter @AdelleNaz