Journalist death toll in Iraq spikes in 2006

December 21st, 2006 at 18:37 Björn Hallberg

32 journalists died in Iraq this past year. Real insurgents or conscious strategy by US forces concealed as ‘insurgent’ activity? Either way, their blood is on America’s hands.

Afghanistan and the Philippines, with three deaths apiece, were the next most dangerous datelines in 2006. Russia, Mexico, Pakistan, and Colombia each saw two journalists killed. All are traditionally dangerous countries for the press, CPJ research shows.

But for the fourth consecutive year, Iraq was in a category all its own as the deadliest place for journalists. This year’s killings bring to 92 the number of journalists who have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003. In addition, 37 media support workers-interpreters, drivers, fixers, and office workers-have been killed since the war began.

A Boing Boing reader also reminds us of David Rosenbaum, the journalist who died as a result of a mugging incident in the US. Like they say, in most other countries the suspicious mugging and slow response would have been investigated as a politically motivated act. But the US is beyond suspicion obviously. I guess the real difference between a “failed state” and a “democracy” is how elegantly you set up your political killings. Also, “failed states” rarely have the clout to pull off false flag operations like the ones lining and fueling America’s “war on terror.”

Entry 667 filed under: Middle East. This entry was posted 1 year, 7 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.