IRAQ has become the most dangerous country for journalists in the past three decades, a report said yesterday.

The conflict has claimed 61 lives since March 2003, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), placing it almost on a par with the Vietnam War, in which 66 journalists were killed, and surpassing the 58 who died in the Algerian conflict of the 1990s.

Sixty-eight journalists were listed as killed during the Second World War.

With 22 journalists killed on duty last year, Iraq accounted for nearly half of all those killed in the world. The next most dangerous place for reporters was the Philippines, where four were killed. “Too many journalists have lost their lives just because they were doing their jobs, and unresponsive governments bear responsibility for the toll . . . their killers are rarely brought to justice,” Ann Cooper, the executive director of the CPJ, said.

“It’s a terrible indictment of governments that let warlords and criminals dictate the news their citizens can see and hear.”

Of those who have died in Iraq, 36 were killed as the result of insurgent action. Fire from US forces accounted for 14 deaths. Iraqi journalists have suffered in the greatest numbers, with 42 killed. Nine of those who died were European and two were American.

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