Yeah, I know Geraldo isn’t exactly what you’d call a journalist, but the photo was too good to pass up. And who better than Geraldo to illustrate that several of these deaths were the result of “friendly fire”? Now on to the story…

According to a recent study by Reporters without Borders, 2006 had the highest death toll for reporters since 1994, with at least 81 journalists and 32 media assistants reportedly killed on duty. More than 1,400 physical attacks or threats against journalists were also recorded.

Not surprisingly, the newly “liberated” country of Iraq was crowned the deadliest, with 64 journalists and media assistants killed this year alone. Iraq has held on to that title for the fourth year in a row, becoming an even larger graveyard for reporters than Vietnam. Since 2003, 139 journalists have been killed in Iraq, which is more than double the toll of the 63 reporters killed during the 20 year Vietnam War.

Amongst the reporter casualties in Iraq, the majority of those killed were Iraqis themselves who took shots from both the insurgents and coalition forces.

Tariq Ayub, an Al Jazeera reporter, was killed on April 8, 2003 when a US missile hit the television station’s Baghdad bureau.

An Al Jazeera television worker, Rashid Hamid Wali, was killed on May 21, 2004 while filming clashes in the flashpoint Iraqi city of Karbala.

And former Al Jazeera reporter Atwar Bahjat was kidnapped and killed on February 23, 2006 while covering sectarian violence in Samarra.

Reporters Without Borders includes journalists in its death count only when it is certain that their deaths were linked to their work as journalists.

The second-most dangerous country was Mexico, with 9 journalists investigating the drug trade or social unrest being killed. 6 journalists were killed in the Philippines, and 3 in Russia. Physical attacks against journalists were also recorded this year, many occurring during national elections in Bangladesh, Peru, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Belarus.

Exact statistics on censorship were impossible to get from China, Burma, and North Korea due to blanket measures against the media in those countries. The internet was one form of media highly censored around the world. The countries with strong internet restrictions were Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. Around 30 bloggers were arrested this year, particularly in China, Iran, and Syria.

The report also recorded that 871 media workers were arrested in 2006, with some being sentenced to several years in prison. Besides state-sanctioned arrests, 17 reporters were kidnapped in Iraq, with six of them being murdered by their captors. The Gaza Strip came in second-place for 6 kidnappings, with all reporters there eventually being freed.

Reporters Without Borders - Press Freedom Round-up 2006

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