By Jillian Marielle Tiraña

PHOTO: Rappler

The Philippines retained its ranking as the 7th deadliest country for journalists in a global index published by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday.

CPJ noted 13 unsolved murders of journalists in the country from September 1, 2011 to August 31, 2021 — an increase from last year’s 11 unsolved cases.

Meanwhile, Somalia remained as the deadliest country for journalists with 25 unsolved murders followed by Syria and Iraq with 21 and 18 cases, respectively. Overall, the index stated that over 278 journalists worldwide were murdered in the past 10 years, 226 of which have no one convicted.

According to CPJ, the index “calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population”. Additionally, only nations with more than 5 cases of unsolved murders are included in the index.

In 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte established the Presidential Task Force on Media Security to end violence against journalists.