UNITED NATIONS (AP) The global group Reporters Without Borders is proposing that attacks on journalists be considered war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
The U.N. Security Council held informal talks Friday on the protection of journalists amid alarm at the more than 50 killed so far this year. An estimated 90 percent of those deaths go unpunished.
France, which holds the presidency of the council this month, is especially concerned after the killings of two Radio France Internationale journalists last month in northern Mali.
The director of Reporters Without Borders, Christophe Deloire, called the statistics on killings "sinister" and warned that impunity amounts to "encouragement" for more attacks.
Deloire said 88 journalists were killed in connection with their work last year a record since the organization started keeping count in 1995.