Annual Death Toll Up for Journalists Covering Global Conflicts

Journalists covering Iraq and other hot spots around the world were killed in near-record numbers in 2007, with 64 job-related deaths reported with two weeks still left in the year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The only year CPJ has recorded a higher death toll was 1994, when 66 journalists were killed, many in conflicts in Algeria, Bosnia and Rwanda. Last year, 56 journalists were killed around the world.  The numbers are even higher when all media workers – including translators and other support staff for journalists in foreign countries – are counted. The International News Safety Institute reports that 173 media workers had been killed as of Dec. 13, 2007.

For the fifth straight year, Iraq was the deadliest country in the world for the media, with 31 victims. Most of them, 24 victims, were targeted and murdered. The other seven died in combat-related crossfire. Almost all were Iraqi nationals working for international news agencies and newspapers, such as the Washington Post.

The deaths are of extreme concern to The Newspaper Guild-CWA, which has members in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many of whom have covered past wars. Journalists say the targeting of media workers today is a new and grave risk in what has always been hazardous work.