‘Year of unspeakable violence vs media’

BRUSSELS (AP) — The loss of dozens of journalists in an Iranian plane crash and relentless targeting of the press in Iraq pushed the total number of media professionals killed around the world to a record 150 in 2005, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said in a report released yesterday.

Deliberate attacks, often by criminals, political extremists or paramilitary groups, accounted for over half the deaths, said the IFJ in what its secretary general Aidan White called "a year of unspeakable violence against media." Thirty-five journalists were killed in Iraq.

The organization’s annual report said last year saw a rising trend toward "targeted assassination of editorial staff" with 89 "killed in the line of duty, singled out for their professional work." The rest died in accidents or natural disasters while at work, including the 48 Iranians killed in the Dec. 6 plane crash in Tehran.

In 2004, the IFJ reported 129 media deaths, the highest total since it began keeping records in the 1980s. That figure was compiled before the Dec. 26, 2004, Asian tsunami which left at least 11 journalists dead and 78 missing.

Even without the Iranian crash, Iraq would have ensured the Middle East remained the most dangerous place for reporters. Starting with TV journalist Abdul Hussein Khazal al-Basri gunned down in Baghdad with his three -year-old son on Feb. 9, the year was marked by a string of deadly attacks on Iraqi reporters.

The IFJ said US troops were involved in five of the deaths of journalists there, bringing the total to 18 since the 2003 invasion. The IFJ has long been critical of US forces in Iraq and White said the figures strengthened his organization’s call for independent investigations.

He also highlighted the assassination of prominent Lebanese journalist Gebran Tueni, a vocal critic of Syria’s role in his country who was blown up in a car crash in December, the last killing of the year.

Outside the Middle East, the Philippines was the most perilous place with 10 journalists gunned down. The IFJ said it plans to open a "a media safety office" there to make journalists safety-savvy.

Twelve journalists were killed in Latin America, a figure White said highlighted "the curse of corruption, crime and narcotics" in the region.

The death toll among journalists in Europe was six in 2005, said the IFJ, two each in Azerbaijan and Russia and one each in Belarus and Kosovo. Six were also killed in Africa.

Before 2004, the most deadly year recorded by the organization was 1994, when 115 were killed, including 48 slain during the genocide in Rwanda. The IFJ recorded 83 killings of media staff in 2003 and 70 in 2002.

Based in Brussels, the IFJ is an umbrella group that brings together journalists’ unions in over 100 nations. It claims to represent more than 500,000 media professionals.

Its figures differ from other media organizations, because it includes support staff such as drivers and translators as well as journalists. It also includes media workers killed accidentally while at work. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists month listed 47 journalists killed in its 2005 report, while the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said 63 were killed last year. — With Artemio Dumlao, Edith Regalado