Group Cites 81 Killings Of Journalists

PARIS, Dec. 31 -- At least 81 journalists were killed in 2006, the highest annual toll in more than a decade, with Iraq again the deadliest place for journalists, the media watchdog organization Reporters Without Borders announced Sunday.

In its annual report, the group said 32 media assistants were also killed in 2006, at least 871 reporters were arrested and at least 1,472 attacks or threats against the news media were registered around the world.

Reporters Without Borders said the year was the most dangerous for journalists since 1994, when 103 reporters died as a direct result of their work, almost half of them during the genocide in Rwanda. In 2005, 63 reporters were killed; 53 were killed in 2004 and 40 in 2003.

For the fourth year in row, Iraq had the highest number of deaths, with 39 journalists killed there, compared with 24 in 2005. About 25 media assistants died in Iraq in 2006.

"Since the beginning of the war, 139 journalists have been killed in Iraq, more than double the number of journalists killed during 20 years of war in Vietnam," Reporters Without Borders said. "In almost 90 percent of cases, the victims have been Iraqi journalists. Investigations have been extremely rare or else never took place."

A separate report by the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists said earlier this month that 55 journalists were killed as a result of their work during 2006, compared with 47 in 2005. Another 27 deaths were possibly work-related, it said.

Media organizations produce different death tolls partly because they use different criteria to classify reporters.

Reporters Without Borders said the second-most dangerous place for reporters this year was Mexico, which had overtaken Colombia as the deadliest country for the news media in the Americas. Nine reporters were killed in Mexico in 2006 while trying to investigate drug traffickers or cover social violence.

The Philippines was the third-deadliest country, registering six deaths, down one from 2005.

Russia also proved a dangerous place, with three journalists killed there this year, including Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin who was shot dead in central Moscow in October.

"In all, 21 have been killed since Vladimir Putin took power in March 2000," Reporters Without Borders said, adding that the Kremlin had assembled a team of 150 investigators to look into the Politkovskaya killing.

Reporters Without Borders said the number of registered cases of censorship fell to 912 this year from 1,006 in 2005. But it said the Internet remained tightly controlled in many countries, with 13 states branded as "enemies of the Web": Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.