The war in Iraq
The most deadly one for the media
since Vietnam
56 journalists and media assistants killed
29 kidnapped
- Who were they?
- Who did they work for?
- How were they killed or kidnapped?
3 May 2005
International Secretariat
5 rue Geoffroy-Marie, 75009 Paris (France)
Tel: (33) 1 4483-8484
Fax: (33) 1 4523-1151
rsf@rsf.org
www.rsf.org
2
Iraq is the world’s most dangerous country for journalists and the place where the most are
kidnapped. 56 journalists and media assistants1 have been killed there since the fighting began
on 22 March 2003 and 29 kidnapped.
The Iraq conflict is the deadliest inter-state war for journalists since the one in Vietnam, when
63 were killed, but over a period of 20 years (1955-75).2 During the fighting in the former
Yugoslavia (1991-95), 49Â journalists were killed doing their job.
57 journalists and 20 media assistants were killed in Algeria between 1993 and 1996 but this
was during an internal (civil) war.
March-April
2003 (start of
fighting)
July-October
2003 (fighting
continues)
January 2004
March-May
2004 (wave of
suicide
attacks,
especially
during
religious
festivals)
June-
November
2004
(government
handed back to
Iraqis)
February-May
2005 (first
elections,
aftermath of
returning
government to
Iraqis)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Journalists killed since the fighting began
The media was targeted from the first day of the fighting in Iraq, when cameraman Paul
Moran, of the Australian TV network ABC, was killed by a car bomb on 22 March 2003.
Eleven journalists and media assistants were killed in March and April that year. The
situation then gradually improved until early the following year, when bomb blasts and
attacks by armed groups increased throughout the country, with nine killed in May 2004.
Almost every month since then, one or two journalists have been killed, nine of them so far
this year.
1 Media assistants are all the people employed by media organisations who are not directly involved in producing editorial
cont