Journalism’s deadliest decade

Writing in The Observer, Richard Sambrook discusses what has been the deadliest decade for journalists. 173 journalists were killed in both 2006 and 2007 – up from 70 in 2002. The numbers look set to be lower in 2008, but as Richard notes, they’re still far too high.

Iraq is still the most dangerous country in the world to be a journalist, but the death toll is down, both in overall numbers and as a proportion of the total deaths worldwide. This is no doubt partly as a result of the relative decline of the insurgency and the work of the Iraqi government and Iraqi media organisations to protect journalists. But all the 15 journalists and media workers killed so far this year were Iraqis, underlining how much frontline reporting for the rest of the world’s media is being carried out by local journalists. link via SacredFacts.