GENEVA, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The number of journalists killed since the beginning of 2018 has climbed by 14 percent to 113 compared with a year ago, the Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) said Monday.

The PEC said in its annual report that since the beginning of this year, 113 journalists were killed in 30 countries, 17 in Afghanistan, 17 in Mexico, and 11 in Syria.

The most dangerous countries following Afghanistan, Mexico and Syria were Yemen and India, with eight killed in each. The five countries account for 61, or more than half of those killed.

Terrorist groups in Afghanistan and criminal groups in Mexico were responsible for the deaths.

Ranking six is the United States with six killed by a gunman at the Capital Gazette newspaper at Annapolis in June. Pakistan follows with five killed.

The number of women journalists killed climbed sharply, from five in 2016 to 16 in 2017. This year, seven female journalists were slain.

The most noted decrease in fatalities was in Iraq where nine journalists were killed last year, but only one this year.

The most significant increase was in Afghanistan where the numbers of fatalities more than doubled from eight in 2017.

From 2009 to 2018, a total of 1,221 journalists and media workers were killed. Enditem

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