ISIS Says It Has Executed Japanese Journalist Goto

ISIS terrorists released yet another video and claimed Saturday to have executed Japanese freelance journalist Kenji Goto, raising the death toll of journalists for the month to ten according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Goto was kidnapped in Syria in October. His work as a reporter and documentarian had been featured on NHK World and leading national TV network, the Tokyo Broadcasting System, according to CPJ.

CPJ had said on Jan. 22 that Japan should "explore all options" to free Goto and his friend Haruna Yukawa, who was executed last week by ISIS.

"Islamic State militants have proven they do not care if you are a journalist from Syria, from the West or from the East. They only care about expanding their reign of terror," said CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator Sherif Mansour in a statement. "We are deeply concerned about the safety of all journalists in territory controlled by the militants--and about the information vacuum that has resulted from their bloody, intimidatory tactics."

Syria is the currently most dangerous country for journalists, as it has been for the past three years. CPJ says more than 90 journalists have been kidnapped in Syrica and that roughly 20 are currently missing, the majority of which are believed to be held by ISIS.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.