56 journos killed in 2004

[struggle4progress]

Washington - Fifty-six journalists died doing their jobs in 2004, the deadliest year for journalists in a decade, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday in an update of the total it released last month.

The death of a third Sri Lankan journalist and the killing of a Gambian journalist in December increased the previous toll of 54, the committee said.

It said 36 of the 56 journalists who died in the line of duty were murdered, a long-term trend monitored by the committee, which said the killers usually went unpunished.

Continuing violence in Iraq and retaliatory killings in the Philippines increased the death toll. <snip>

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1642573,00.html


In a year of war, murder still top cause of work deaths for journalists

<snip> The toll traverses the globe—from the Philippines, where eight journalists were slain in a shocking series of attacks; to Mexico, where drug-fueled violence claimed the lives of two journalists; to the Gambia, where editor and press freedom advocate Deyda Hydara was gunned down just days after denouncing a repressive new press law.

Even in Iraq, where crossfire was the leading cause of death among journalists, at least nine of the 23 journalists killed were deliberately targeted. <snip>

As CPJ reported in December, the 2004 death toll is the highest in a decade. The deadliest year for journalists since CPJ began compiling detailed statistics was 1994, when 66 journalists were killed, mostly in Algeria, Rwanda, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Seventeen media workers were also killed in 2004, 16 of them in Iraq. Such workers play supporting roles as drivers, interpreters, fixers and guards. Two journalists also went missing, including French and Canadian journalist Guy-André Kieffer who disappeared in Ivory Coast in April. <snip>

http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/USA03jan05na.html#more

[AZCat]

1. I read Peter Maas' "Love Thy Neighbor" last year

He was in Bosnia during the horror of '92-'94 and it is a depressing look at how dangerous war zones are, even to those who are ostensibly "on the sidelines". His account is well worth reading (for many reasons) if you want to get an idea of what war-zone journalists go through.