UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A press freedom advocacy group said yesterday that the past two years have been “absolutely atrocious” for the killing and imprisonment of journalists.

At the launch of its annual report, Attacks on the Press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said wide-ranging government surveillance, the unchecked murder of journalists and indirect political and commercial pressures are major threats to press freedom.

Joel Simon, the New York-based committee’s executive director, said 2013 saw “a near record” of 211 journalists imprisoned and 70 killed — slightly fewer than 2012, when 232 journalists were in jail and 72 were killed. That’s tied with the highest death toll of the Iraq war.

According to the report, Egypt experienced the greatest deterioration in press freedom in 2013, and it was also the third deadliest country with six journalists killed.

Syria remains the most dangerous with more than 63 killed since 2011, including 29 last year, and “an unprecedented number of kidnappings” — more than 80 since 2011 including 57 in 2013, Mansour said. CPJ has also documented more than 70 Syrian journalists forced into exile, he said.

Iran remains the second major jailer of journalists, with 35 behind bars at the end of 2013, he said, and in Iraq 10 journalists were killed in the last quarter of 2013, compared to zero in 2012.

Nina Ognianova, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia coordinator, said “Russia and Turkey have got progressively more repressive for journalists” over the past year.