Murder with Impunity

The Committee to Protect Journalists just released its Impunity Index, a list of the countries with the worst records for failing to solve the murders of journalists. Interestingly, the accompanying report notes,

Most countries on the Impunity Index are democratic, are not at war, and have functioning law enforcement institutions, yet journalists are regularly targeted for murder and no one is held accountable.

Here are the countries at the top of the list, for 1998-2007:

1. Iraq
2. Sierra Leone
3. Somalia
4. Colombia
5. Sri Lanka
6. Philippines
7. Afghanistan
8. Nepal
9. Russia
10. Mexico
11. Bangladesh
12. Pakistan
13. India

Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.