Latin America was the region where the coronavirus caused the death of more journalists.
According to data from the NGO Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), which analyzes each year the first threats to the press and which were published this Friday, at least 1,400 journalists died worldwide from COVID-19 in 2021 and the total number since the start of the pandemic is close to 2,000.
The data correspond only to cases verified by the organization, which clarifies that the actual figures may be much higher, due to the lack of complete statistics in many countries.
Latin America was the region where the coronavirus caused the death of more journalists, almost half of the total number (954), with Brazil and Peru as the most affected countries.
It was followed by Asia, where the death of 556 media professionals was confirmed, and in third place Europe (263).
In the Old Continent, the most affected country was Italy, which since March 1, 2020 registered the death of 61 journalists from COVID-19, while in Spain at least 19 died.
During the first half of last year, the numbers of fatal infections skyrocketed, and 1,175 journalists died from the coronavirus.
However, the progressive vaccination considerably reduced the number of deaths, so that in the second half of last year only 225 deaths were reported.
PEC Secretary General Blaise Lempen expects this slowdown to continue in 2022, but was concerned about the high number of infections caused by the omicron variant and called on all media workers to take the necessary precautions, including booster vaccination. (I)
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