Last year was the bloodiest year on record for journalism. In its report, Journalism Put to the Sword in 2006, the International Federation of Journalists put the death toll for the year at 155 journalists killed and 22 accidental deaths. There were 69 journalists killed in Iraq alone.

The IFJ says the report, which gives detailed accounts of the deaths of journalists, provides a challenge to employers and governments to do more to improve levels of security and safety. It says that leading media organisations such as Reuters, the BBC and CNN have used their global reputation alongside regional networks, including some leading members of the European Broadcasting Union, to help pioneer a safety culture for journalists – but the industry as a whole is “still in deficit” when it comes to reducing the risks journalists and media staff face.

“There is a dramatic discrepancy between media which take their responsibility to staff safety seriously,” says IFJ general secretary Aidan White, “and those who, frankly, appear to send people into the field and don’t give a damn what happens to them.”
Media employers have no excuse not to join the International News Safety Institute, an independent industry-wide coalition campaigning for safety training and better protection for journalists, White says. “Everyone must pitch in to reduce this appalling level of violence against our people.”

The statistics include journalists and media staff – fixers, drivers, technicians, security staff and translators – and include some cases that are still under investigation, but where colleagues, unions or press freedom groups believe that the killing was related to the journalists’ work. Not included in this list are journalists who are missing and feared dead but whose bodies have not been found.

Separately, the IFJ compiles a list of journalists and media staff killed on the job in automobile, air or other accidents, by natural disasters or by medical problems triggered by strenuous or dangerous work.