High-risk job

There were 76 journalists killed in 2009, compared to 60 in 2008, according to figures from the advocacy group. Additionally, more than 2,000 journalists were arrested, kidnapped, assaulted and/or censored.

Among the events making 2009 a black year for reporters was the massacre of 30 journalists in the Philippines in November.

In nearly all of the cases, journalists were killed while reporting on violence or corruption in their own countries, says Vincent Brossel of Reporters Without Borders.

"The journalists who are really in danger and who are really on the front line are the local journalists and not the foreign correspondents," Brossel told Deutsche Welle.

In 2009 a total of 573 journalists were arrested, 33 were kidnapped, 1,456 were physically assaulted and 157 others fled their countries fearing violence, according to the group. Iran and Sri Lanka were high on the list of countries from which journalists fled.

New media also a target

It was not only newspaper and television journalists who faced violence. There were 151 bloggers who were censored in 2009, compared with 59 in 2008. One blogger died in prison.

"Governments in China and Iran are trying to prevent new media (i.e. social networking, mobile phones etc.) from being used by people who want to create a civil society," Brossel told Deutsche Welle.

"We feel that the new challenge for us is to be able to defend the bloggers as we have been defending the journalists in the past," he said.

th/AP/AFP

Editor: Susan Houlton