Media killings, deaths hit 132 in 2009, report says

Not a good year to be a journalist , Especially in a third world Country !

GENEVA (Reuters) - The Philippines, Mexico, Somalia and Russia were the most dangerous countries for journalists in 2009, a global media group reported on Wednesday.

A total of 132 journalists and support staff were killed or died while working last year, the International News Safety Institute, INSI, said.

Just three international reporters were among those deliberately targeted, the dead being overwhelmingly local journalists covering dangerous stories like high-level crime and corruption for national news media.

The Brussels-based INSI, which monitors statistics from around the world, said 98 of the dead were murdered because of their reporting activities.

"Journalists continue to die because they dare to shine a light on the darkest corners of societies. This is the shocking price we pay for our news," INSI Director Rodney Pinder said in a statement released in Geneva with the body's annual figures.