Worst year ever for journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says 84 journalists were killed worldwide in 2006. Include media support staff such as interpreters and drivers, and that figure climbs to 177, the worst on record.
At least 155 of those were murders and unexplained deaths, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the remaining 22 being accidental deaths on duty.
The second-worst year ever for journalist deaths was 2005, with 154 killed that year. The CPJ also monitors journalists missing and in prison. Aidan White of the IFJ calls it a "media crisis."
Iraq remains the most dangerous place for journalists, with 170 media staff killed there since the commencement of the present war in April 2003. Also very dangerous in 2006 were Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Sri Lanka and — second only to Iraq — the Philippines. More journalists have been killed in the Philippines since Gloria Arroya came to power in 2001 than in the 14 years under Marcos.
The highest profile journalist murder in 2006 was the gunning down of 
(pictured) in her Moscow apartment building on 7 October. She was an award-winning investigative journalist reporting on the war in Chechnya. Over 200 journalists have been killed in Russia since 1993. Sign an online petition calling for an international commission of enquiry into Politkovskaya’s death.
In the wake of her shocking murder, Reporters Without Borders drafted a detailed resolution that they succeeded in having passed by the UN Security Council on 23 December. It calls on governments to protect journalists in war zones and to prosecute anyone suspected of killing them.
Ethnic-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink has been shot dead in broad daylight outside his office in Istanbul.
Respected editor and columnist, 53 year-old Dink had been the target of death threats and legal action for his views on the Armenian genocide under the Ottoman empire.
Some 5,000 people have gathered where he was killed on 19 January 2007, chanting: "We are all Armenians, we are all Hrant Dink."
Sign an RSF petition for press freedom here.
As reported in UN Association of Australia newsletter, 13 April 2007:
UNESCO honours Anna Politkovskaya
"Anna Politkovskaya, the esteemed Russian journalist and outspoken human rights campaigner who was killed last October, will be awarded the prestigious 2007 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, the first time the honour has been bestowed posthumously in its 10-year history.
"Particularly well-known for her coverage of the Chechnya conflict in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, her work was recognised worldwide."
[…] A year after the assassination of esteemed Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, nine people have been charged with involvement in the murder. […]
Paralegal Certification.com publishes its own list of countries that have jailed journalists: http://www.paralegalcertification.com/jailed-journalists