REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEW YORK -- 69 journalists were killed around the world on the job in 2015. 28 of them were slain by Islamic militant groups, including al-Qaeda and ISIS group, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The New York-based organization said Syria again was the deadliest place for journalists, though the number of deaths there in 2015, was 13, which was lower than in previous years of the conflict.

"This is, clearly based on the data, an incredible risk for journalists," said the committee's executive director, Joel Simon, as reported The Daily Star.

Those killed by Islamic extremist groups this year included eight journalists killed in an attack in Paris in January at the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attack in which two gunmen massacred 12 people. They said it was in revenge for the prophet.

In October, two Syrian journalists, Fares Hamadi and Ibrahim Abd al-Qader were killed by ISIS militants.

While some of the deaths were among reporters covering conflict zones, journalists in several countries also were killed after reporting on sensitive subjects. At least 28 of the reporters who were killed had received threats before their deaths.

In Brazil, Gleydson Carvalho, a radio broadcaster who often criticized local police and politicians for purported wrongdoing, was shot and killed while presenting his afternoon radio show in August. The committee tracked six killings in Brazil this year.

Among the 69 journalists killed were reporter Alison Parker and video journalist Adam Ward, of Roanoke, Virginia, TV station WDBJ, who were fatally shot in August by former co-worker Vester Lee Flanagan II during a live broadcast. Their interview subject, Vicki Gardner, was wounded. Flanagan fatally shot himself five hours later after a police chase.

"Journalists are a target and this just confirms it. This is a global threat," Simon said of the data the committee compiled.

The Committee to Protect Journalists report warns that it is increasingly difficult to research the deaths of journalists in conflict-hit places such as Libya, Yemen and Iraq. As in Syria, ISIS group holds parts of Iraq, where the organization said it has received reports of dozens more journalists killed.

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