Does Trump's idolization of Putin extend to how he'll treat the free press as president?

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued its annual report this month.

At least 48 journalists were killed in relation to their work, compared with 72 in 2015, the group said in an annual report.

The group suggested that the final figures for 2016 could change, because it was still investigating the deaths of 27 journalists to determine if they were work-related.

“It is undeniably good news that fewer journalists are being murdered, and the decline shows the critical importance of the fight to end impunity,” Joel Simon, the executive director of the group, said in releasing the 2016 report.

This year just one journalist critical of Russia was murdered. Pavel Sheremet, who wrote for the independent news website Ukrainska Pravda, was killed in Kiev on July 20, 2016 by a car bomb. Sheremet told Reuters in 2015 that he didn't feel safe returning to Moscow, where he began his career. "I'm threatened often and given hints. Every time I go to Moscow, it's like I'm in a minefield."

Now that Vladimir Putin is going to have his stooge Donald Trump in the White House, it's a good time to revisit Putin's relationship with the fourth estate. There's no question Trump idolizes the man, so in case he wants to start emulating him, forewarned is forearmed. According to international watchdog Freedom House, Russia ranks 180 out of 199 countries for press freedom, behind Iraq, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Since 2000 when Putin gained power, 34 journalists have been murdered in Russia, using combined data from the CPJ and the Glasnost Defense Foundation. These are deaths confirmed or likely to be work-related homicides committed in Russia.