109 journalists killed on assignment in 2008

At least 109 reporters and other news media workers were killed last year while on assignment around the world, with Iraq remaining the deadliest place for a journalist to work, the International Federation of Journalists said Wednesday. In its annual report on press freedom, the group said covering stories in hot spots remained a "perilous" task for journalists, camera operators, producers and photographers. It also urged governments to "step up" efforts to stop the killing of journalists. "The welcome relief brought about by the decline in the killings of journalists in 2008 has been short-lived," said Aidan White, general secretary of the IFJ. "Ten colleagues died in January (2009) alone." The IFJ had reported 175 deaths of media workers in 2007, both deliberate and accidental. The group counts all people employed by media organizations who died performing their duties, including interpreters and drivers. Another group defending journalists' rights, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, estimated in January that 86 journalists had been killed worldwide in 2008. White said Iraq remains the "deadliest" place to work despite a sharp drop in deaths among media staff. Sixteen journalists were killed in Iraq in 2008, compared with 65 in 2007. The decline was due to lessening sectarian violence in Iraq, the group said. The risks remain high in Iraq, however, and the IFJ says 284 media staff are estimated to have died there since the U.S. -led invasion in 2003. Most of those killed were Iraqi nationals. An Iraqi sports editor, meanwhile, died Tuesday of shrapnel wounds from a roadside bombing months ago, the head of the Iraqi Journalists' Union, Mouyyad al-Lami, said Wednesday. Majid al-Sakr died after being in a coma since the November 28 attack in Baghdad. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says 136 journalists and 51 media support workers have been killed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Those figures don't include al-Sakr. There was no way to reconcile the two groups' death tolls in Iraq. The IFJ said it was working with other journalism groups to provide special safety training for media workers in Iraq. The group also recorded 10 media deaths each in Mexico and India, and warned that Pakistan and the Philippines had become more dangerous for reporters. Nine media workers died in the Philippines and seven in Pakistan last year. The IFJ said lawlessness and rampant corruption in the Philippines had led to more shootings of reporters covering corruption. The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 123 countries.