Watchdog group: 2007 2nd deadliest year for news media worldwide

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A media watchdog group said Monday that 64 journalists in 17 countries have died while covering the news in 2007 - making it the deadliest year in more than a decade. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in an annual report that Iraq led the list for the fifth year in a row with 31 dead. That is one fewer than a year ago. Somalia was second with seven dead in 2007, and Pakistan and Sri Lanka each recorded five deaths. The global figure of 64 was an increase of eight over the previous year and two short of the record 66 set in 1994, when strife ripped Algeria, Bosnia and Rwanda. The New York-based committee said it was still investigating 22 other cases from 2007 to determine if they were "work-related." Murder reached its peak in Iraq, where most of the 124 reporters, photographers and editors, and 49 other news employees killed since the US invasion in 2003, were slain after being abducted.