People attend a demonstration against the murder of photojournalist Ruben Espinosa Becerril in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, on Aug. 2, 2015. Ruben Espinosa Becerril, who worked for the investigative magazine "Proceso", was found murdered along with four women in Mexico City. (Xinhua/Alejandro Ayala)

NEW YORK, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Journalists face unprecedented risk as insurgent and criminal groups spread globally, a New York-based media watchdog said Tuesday.

The risks include kidnapping for ransom or political gain, and murder by insurgents who see journalists as surrogates of an enemy too powerful to attack directly, said the Committee to Protect Journalists in a report.

Journalists are caught in crossfire or targeted by drug cartels as a warning to other unwelcome reporters, the report said.

While technological changes enable more people to engage in acts of journalism, those same changes bring new risks, such as surveillance and tracking, it said.

The report said that journalists have become increasing targets since the early 2000s and most notable was the kidnapping and videotaped beheading of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan in 2002.

"His death signaled a new era in which violent non-state actors use journalists as pawns in asymmetrical warfare with foreign powers," it said.