Journalist Deaths Spike in 2009
Christopher Weber
The Committee to Protect Journalists said this year's global count surpassed the previous record of 67 deaths in 2007, when many journalists were killed in Iraq. Last year there were 42 media deaths internationally, Reuters reported.
For six years Iraq had been the deadliest country for journalists. In 2009 it was third, with four journalist deaths, the lowest annual count since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
The Philippines topped the list with 32 media deaths, 31 of which happened during a massacre in November.
"The killings in the Philippines are a shocking but not entirely surprising product of a long-term reality: The government has allowed unpunished violence against journalists, most of it politically motivated, to become part of the culture," the CPJ's Asia program coordinator Bob Dietz told Reuters.
Nine journalists were killed in Somalia this year. Four were killed in Pakistan, three in Russia, two in Sri Lanka and Mexico and one in Venezuela, Nepal, Madagascar, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, El Salvador, Colombia, Israel and the Palestinian Territory, Iran, Afghanistan and Kenya.
The CPJ said all but two of the 2009 victims were local journalists covering stories in their own communities.