Somalia is the world's worst country for unsolved murders of journalists for the third straight year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In its 10th annual Global Impunity Index, released Tuesday, the committee said more than two dozen journalists were murdered over the past decade in Somalia, where a prolonged civil war continues.
After ranking third last year, Syria, in the throes of a more than six-year civil war, claimed the second worst spot on the index, "a ranking of countries where journalists are murdered and their killers go free."
Third on the list is Iraq, where journalists have been targets of aggression from Islamic State militants, state-supported militias and other groups.
Conflict among political factions in South Sudan, where five journalists were killed in a 2015 ambush, propelled the country to number four on the index.
The Philippines came in fifth, as government officials and criminal elements "go unpunished for murdering journalists in high numbers." The committee reported journalists also face similar conditions in Brazil, India, Mexico and Russia, which CPJ said also tout themselves as democracies.
Afghanistan was excluded for the first time since the committee began calculating the index in 2008. Murders of journalists in Afghanistan have declined, despite its 16-year war and the fact that there have been no convictions of murdered journalists.
