Journalists suffered one of their deadliest years ever in 2006, with Iraq once again proving the most dangerous place in the world for the media to work, two media watchdogs said on Sunday, according to Reuters. Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RSF) said at least 81 reporters and 32 media staff were killed in 2006 as a result of their jobs, saying the death toll was the highest since 1994 when scores of reporters died in the Rwandan genocide. The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) put the 2006 toll at 155 murders, giving no separate breakdown between reporters and their staff. "2006 was the worst year on record. A year of targeting, brutality and continued impunity in the killing of journalists," IFJ General-Secretary Aidan White said in a statement. There was no clear reason for the disparity in death tolls, but media organisations sometimes produce different statistics because they use different criteria to classify reporters. In its annual report, RSF said at least 871 reporters were arrested in 2006 and at least 1,472 attacks or threats were registered against the media around the world -- a new record. For the fourth year running, Iraq claimed the highest number of deaths, with 39 journalists killed there against 24 in 2005, according to RSF, which said 25 media assistants had also died in Iraq in 2006. The IFJ put the Iraq toll at 68 for this year. "Since the beginning of the war (in 2003), 139 journalists have been killed in Iraq, more than double the number of journalists killed during 20 years of war in Vietnam," the RSF report said. "In almost 90 percent of cases, the victims have been Iraqi journalists. Investigations have been extremely rare or else never took place," the report added.
