INTERNATIONAL MEDIA GROUP: 100 JOURNALISTS, MEDIA WORKERS KILLED IN FIRST HALF OF 2007

The Associated Press
International Herald Tribune, France

Jun e 29 2007

BRUSSELS, Belgium: One hundred journalists and media workers were
killed in the first six months of this year, putting 2007 on the path
of becoming the deadliest year for the news media, the International
News Safety Institute said Friday.

The 100-mark was reached Tuesday in Iraq – the most dangerous country
for the news media in modern times – with the killing Tuesday of
Hamed Sarha, a 30-year veteran of the Iraqi national news agency who
was shot by unidentified gunmen, a statement said.

According to statistics compiled by the Brussels-based group,
83 journalists and 17 other media professionals died covering news
stories between Jan. 1 and June 26. This compares with 68 deaths at
the same time last year.

INSI – a coalition of media organizations, media freedom groups, unions
and humanitarian campaigners dedicated to the safety of journalists
and media staff – said 2006 was the worst year on record with a total
of 168 murders and other work-related deaths among journalists and
media professionals.

"This is a shocking development," INSI director Rodney Pinder said.

"We have never known such a high death toll halfway through a year,
and we fear for what might be to come."

According to the statistics, 72 of the casualties worldwide appear
to have been murdered.

In Iraq, a total of 22 journalists and support staff were murdered
in the first six months of this year, while 14 others died in other
conflict-related incidents, the statement said.

"Democracy has even less chance of taking hold in Iraq while
journalists are being slaughtered like this," Pinder said.

After Iraq, the countries where most journalists were murdered in the
first half of this year were Afghanistan (5), Haiti and Philippines,
each with four dead, Somalia, Palestine and India (3) and Sri Lanka,
Mexico and Brazil (2).

The dead include some prominent cases such as Hrant Dink, an ethnic
Armenian journalist and advocate of minority rights murdered in
Istanbul, and Edward Chikombo, a cameraman who had filmed the injuries
of Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition activists at the hands of
the Zimbabwe police.

Also, Ajmal Naqshbandi, a translator for Italian reporter Daniele
Mastrogiacomo, was beheaded by the Taliban after the Italian was
released unharmed.