Record 68 journalists killed worldwide in 2009: survey

A record 68 journalists were killed across the globe during their work in the year 2009, a recent survey has said. The report released yesterday by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) eclipsed the previous record of 67 deaths, registered in 2007 when violence in Iraq was rampant.

The death toll for this year may increase as the CPJ is still investigating suspected work-related deaths of 20 other journalists, it added. This year marked "a year of unprecedented devastation for the world's media, but the violence also confirms long-term trends," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement.

The CPJ attributed the record toll for this year to slaughter of about 30 media workers during their election coverage in the Philippine province of Maguindanao. They were among the 57 people brutally murdered in a November ambush motivated by political clan rivalries.

The deadliest prior event for the press came in Iraq in October 2006, when 11 employees of Al-Shaabiya television were killed in an attack on the station's Baghdad studios.

The CPJ said risks in combat zones shifted markedly in 2009, referring to a decline to four from the previous year's 11 in the death toll of Iraqi journalists, the lowest annual tally since the Iraq War began in 2003.

But violence soared in Somalia, where nine local journalists were murdered or killed in combat situations.