quote:

2006 'most savage' year for journalists A media watchdog has described 2006 as the "most savage and brutal" year on record for journalists, with 100 media professionals killed across the world. International Press Institute director Johann Fritz says last year saw a "war on journalism". "With 100 journalists killed, 2006 was the most savage and brutal year in the history of the modern media," he said in the IPI's annual report. Iraq, where more than 150 media workers have died since the 2003 US-led invasion, has topped the list as the world's most dangerous place for the media for the fourth year. In 2006, 46 journalists died reporting the conflict. The report says the deaths were targeted killings in almost all cases. Journalists were killed in 23 other nations last year. The second most deadly country was the Philippines, with 10 killings. The IPI study covers 180 countries. Seven journalists died in Mexico, five in Sri Lanka, four in Pakistan, three each in Afghanistan and Colombia, and two each in Venezuela, Russia, India and China. The report says most of the victims were from the local media and almost all the killings were carried out with impunity. The IPI, which comprises media workers drawn from 120 countries, says the highest toll recorded in the recent past was in 1999, when 86 journalists died during the course of their work. A total of 65 journalists died in 2005, 13 less than the preceding year. Media Freedom The watchdog also says several countries continue to gag journalists, making it impossible for them to work freely. It has singled out North Korea, Turkmenistan, Libya, Syria and Saudi Arabia as being among the most repressive. The report also points to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Zimbabwe and Russia as countries where journalists were subject to exactions and violence. The organisation has also expressed concern over legal action following the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The cartoons sparked violent protests in several countries after they were published in a Danish newspaper and reproduced elsewhere. The IPI has blasted attempts to push through a clause to ban "religious defamation" in several countries and in the United Nations. Earlier, the media rights groups the International Federation of Journalists and Journalists Without Borders had put the toll of journalists killed last year at 155 and 81 respectively. The figures are at variance due to differing views of what happened in some incidents but also because of different definitions of what constitutes a journalist. Source- AFP

Not suprising there with Iraq, though Russia has been bumped down a few pegs from it's #3 position. Philippines was a bit of a surprise.
I guess it's relevance to us is, where do you trust your news sources to be comparatively influence free of the fear of assassination and retribution from the state. Course it doesn't really also cover the parts where information doesn't get out and how it is manipulated by other 'non lethal' influence.

Things to consider at least when researching your sources.