As many as 49 journalists have been killed across the world in 2019 -- the lowest in 16 years, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Tuesday.
Most of them died covering conflicts in Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan, the Paris-based watchdog said and warned that "journalism remains a dangerous profession".
An annual average of 80 journalists have been killed over the past two decades, said the organisation, which is known by its French initials RSF.
The number of journalists killed in countries at peace continues to be as high as in previous years with 10 journalists being murdered in 2019 in Mexico, the same number as last year.
"With a total of 14 journalists killed, Latin America has become as deadly for journalists as the Middle East," RSF said.
RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said, "The frontier between countries at war and countries at peace is in the process of disappearing for journalists."
He said they welcomed the fall in the number of journalists killed in war zones but, "at the same time, more and more journalists are being deliberately murdered in democratic countries, which poses a real challenge for the democracies.”
While 2019 saw a fall in the journalist deaths, more are being locked up. Some 389 are currently behind bars -- up by 12 percent from last year, according to the RSF annual worldwide round-up of deadly violence and abusive treatment against journalists.
Nearly half of these journalists are being held by three countries: China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
China, which has intensified its crackdown on the mostly-Muslim Uyghur minority, alone holds a third of the worldwide total of arbitrarily detained journalists, RSF said.
Saudi Arabia was blamed for the gruesome murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi at its embassy in Istanbul last year.
Besides, 57 journalists are being held hostage across the globe, mostly in Syria (30), Yemen (15), Iraq (11) and Ukraine (1).
"There has been no notable release of hostages in 2019 despite major developments in Syria," the RSF said and feared for the worst for many of those abducted.
No journalist, however, has been reported missing in 2019.