UN leader outraged at mounting media deaths

Ban told a World Press Freedom Day event at the UN headquarters that journalists now face "dire threats" and highlighted that more than 60 were killed in 2011.

Amid international tributes to journalists such as Marie Colvin of the United States and Remi Ochlik of France who were killed in the Syrian protest city of Homs in March, some press freedom groups say this year could see an even worse media death toll.

Farhan Jeemis Abdulle, a radio reporter, was shot dead by gunmen in Somalia on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, police said. Abdulle was the fifth Somali journalist gunned down this year.

The UN secretary general said "countless" reporters "face intimidation, harassment and censorship at the hands of governments, corporations and powerful individuals seeking to preserve their power or hide wrongdoings and misdeeds."

"Impunity for those who attack or threaten journalists remains disturbingly prevalent -- including for assaults carried out in broad daylight, delivering the most brutal of messages.

"Such attacks are outrageous. I call on all concerned to prevent and prosecute such violence," Ban said.

Reporters Without Borders said that 22 reporters and six bloggers and "citizen journalists" have already been killed since the start of the year.

According to Reporters Without Borders, five journalists have been killed in Somalia this year, four in Syria -- including Colvin and Ochlik -- two each in Bangladesh, Brazil and India, and one in Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand.

The UN General Assembly held a minute\