87 Journalists Killed on the Job in 2007, China Leads in Jailing Them

By: Iraq was the deadliest place for journalists last year, while China led the rest of the world in jailing members of the news media and cracking down on freedom of expression, a media rights group reports.

Russia and Iran also took significant steps to muzzle the media, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said.

All told, 87 journalists were killed on the job in 2007.

"More and more journalists are being killed and last year's figure was the highest since 1994," said the report.

In Iraq, 47 journalists were killed ? up from 41 in 2006. Other deadly countries for those in the media were Somalia and Pakistan, where eight and six journalists were killed, respectively.

The group's annual report was to be released today in Washington.

In Iraq, most of the media workers killed covering the war were Iraqi journalists. A Russian photographer killed in a bomb explosion north of Baghdad was the lone foreign journalist, the report said. Twenty-five journalists were kidnapped. Most were freed unharmed.

The report said China remains the biggest censorship offender and jails the largest number of journalists, cyber-dissidents, Internet users and activists for freedom of expression. It has at least 31 journalists behind bars.

Head researcher Jean-Francois Julliard says Reporters Without Borders is especially concerned about this summer's Olympic Games in China, where he maintains human rights conditions have greatly worsened.

"There are more journalists detained in China now than there were when China was chosen in 2001 to host the games," Julliard said.

In Iran, the group said, repression has increased, with more and more journalists being jailed. Over 50 journalists were put in prison last year; 10 remained imprisoned at the end of the year.

Pakistan and Russia, are also worrisome, said the group.

In Pakistan, which chooses a new parliament Monday, President Pervez Musharraf imposed a ban in November on privately owned news networks after he declared emergency rule. The government allowed stations to return to the air after they signed a code of conduct, which critics say has limited press freedoms.

In March, Russia will elect a new president. Critics charge that state-controlled television stations have given extensive positive coverage to President Vladimir Putin's endorsed successor, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and virtually ignored other candidates.