(AP)

(CNSNews.com) – In an August 10 letter to ABC, CBS, and NBC, more than 30 conservative leaders called on the networks, and the media overall, to seriously and aggressively cover the genocide of Christians in the Middle East and Africa, “and continue to do so until the civilized world puts an end to this evil.”

“Christianity is on the verge of being wiped out in the Middle East,” the letter reads. “Ancient communities that have existed since the time of the apostles are being systematically eliminated. In Iraq alone, the number of Christians has plunged from one million to under 275,000 in the last 12 years alone.”

“This is not a few instances of violence or vandalism,” states the letter. “This is a Genocide.”

Thousands of Christians have been slaughtered by the Islamic State in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, and tens of thousands of Christians have fled their homelands into refugee camps in Jordan and other countries. Christians are also being killed in Africa and South Asia by radical Muslims.

The U.S. government officially declared this atrocity “genocide” in March 2016, and other governments and human rights leaders started calling it genocide as early as 2013.

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Yet a new study by the Media Research Center (MRC) shows that for two-and-a-half years (January 2014 -- June 2016), the networks ABC, CBS, and NBC have reported on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia just 60 times. In only six of those reports did the networks use the word “genocide.”

“Christians have been murdered -- often mass murders – in a dozen countries,” reads the letter. “Islamic terrorists have tortured, beheaded, crucified or burned alive priests, nuns and worshippers alike. Families are routinely broken up and women are forced into sexual slavery.”

“Stunningly, almost none of it has made the evening news broadcasts, and the networks almost never called what it is: genocide,” states the letter. “It is long past time for the media to report on the extent of this historic calamity.”

It continues, “Even though some traditional print outlets have covered this horror, America’s main source for news, the broadcast networks, have shamefully neglected to do so. ABC, NBC and CBS have only sporadically reported on the ethnic cleansing of some of the world’s oldest Christian sects from Iraq and Syria, and the bloody fate of those who remained. And even after this administration finally acknowledged this is a genocide, they continue to avoid using ‘genocide’ to describe what ISIS and affiliated Muslim extremists are inflicting on Christians in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia even now.”

“We the undersigned, therefore, respectfully call on the media, especially the broadcast networks, to start covering this atrocity, calling it what it is – a genocide – and continue to do so until the civilized world puts an end to this evil,” reads the letter. “This is your duty as journalists and your moral obligation as citizens.”

The letter is signed by conservative leaders such as Ambassador Kenneth Blackwell, MRC President Brent Bozell, Armenian Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, National Review Publisher Jack Fowler, Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition, musician and columnist Charlie Daniels, Tea Party Nation Founder Judson Phillips, Morton Blackwell, Gary Bauer, Brigitte Gabriel of ACT for America, and Catholic League President Bill Donohue.

For the complete list of signers, click here.

To read the MRC report, Shameful Silence: ABC, CBS, and NBC Have Ignored Christian Genocide, click here.

Disclosure: The Media Research Center is the parent organization of CNSNews.com.