quote:

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Kidnappers in Iraq, political assassins in Beirut, and hit men in the Philippines made murder the leading cause of work-related deaths among journalists worldwide in 2005, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists shows. Forty-seven journalists were killed in 2005, more than three-quarters of whom were murdered to silence their criticism or punish them for their work.

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I questioned, the other day, the killing of reporters and photographers by "friendly" fire.

The link you provided refers to the matter. Here are two excerpts from that article:

"Too many journalists have lost their lives just because they were doing their jobs, and unresponsive governments bear responsibility for the toll," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said.

"The war in Iraq might lead one to think that reporters are losing their lives on the battlefield. But the fact is that three out of four journalists killed around the world are singled out for murder, and their killers are rarely brought to justice. It's a terrible indictment of governments that let warlords and criminals dictate the news their citizens can see and hear."

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In no other way can we learn to think intelligently about the many different forces of destruction at play in these situations, the different sources of hostility to freedom of expression.

Among the first targeted killings of journalists in Iraq were those of journalists working for al-Jazeera, targeted by American missiles that everyone acknowledges had to have been carefully guided and intentional. At least those killings are recorded here: it is hard to believe the U.S. government will ever be held to account for them.

Murdered by one side or the other, the stain on our so-called civilizations and our century is the same. Instances of the targeting of journalists have risen as the politicization of their work has, as news-gathering has been more and more politicized by governments and other power groups.

Sadly, some journalists have co-operated in the politicization of news-gathering, and in doing so have contributed to putting all their confreres in greater danger. Every American reporter who consented to being "embedded" with invading troops jumped the wrong way on ethical grounds, and the more common that sort of behaviour becomes, the more common will be the belief among peoples everywhere that reporters are nothing but propagandists for their own governments.