In the United States, it's rare for a reporter to have to risk life and limb. But in much of the world reporters are often thrown in jail, beaten or even killed just for doing their jobs. The death toll is on the rise. And when reporters come under fire, press freedom is a casualty. Here are stories about such incidents around the globe.
Impunity Index Shows Where Slayings of Journalists Go Unsolved
It's called the Impunity Index. It's a survey that shows where the slayings of reporters are most likely to go unsolved. It's compiled each year by the Committee to Protect Journalists. This year's impunity index finds Iraq coming in at no. 1 as the world's worst offender. Somalia and the Philippines round out the top 3.
Shahzad's Death Illustrates the Dangers Facing Reporters in Pakistan
The slaying of a prominent Pakistani reporter reinforces what everyone in the news business already knows: Being a crusading journalist is dangerous work, especially in Pakistan.
Female Foreign Correspondents and the Danger of Sexual Assault
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Being a foreign correspondent is often dangerous work, especially for reporters covering war zones or countries in the throes of of political turmoil. In just the past decade, from Iraq to Afghanistan and beyond, dozens if not hundreds of journalists have been beaten, jailed, kidnapped and even killed. And for female correspondents in particular there is always the added risk of sexual assault.
CBS Correspondent Lara Logan Beaten and Sexually Assaulted at Cairo Protests
The story is shocking, the details gut-churning: CBS News correspondent Lara Logan was attacked and sexually assaulted last Friday night while covering the celebrations in Cairo sparked by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation. According to a CBS statement, Logan and her team were in Tahrir Square when they were suddenly ringed by a mob of more than 200 people. In the crush Logan was separated from her crew, beaten and sexually assaulted. The statement described the attack as sustained and brutal.
Anderson Cooper and Other Journalists Attacked by Pro-Mubarak Thugs in Cairo
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Reporters covering the turmoil in the streets of Cairo - including CNN's Anderson Cooper - are being attacked by pro-Mubarak demonstrators, and the Committee to Protect Journalists is calling on the Egyptian government to provide protection for journalists. Cooper, who has been reporting on the protests in Cairo for several days, tweeted about what he and his crew faced: "Got roughed up by thugs in pro-mubarak crowd..punched and kicked repeatedly. Had to escape. Safe now."
In Mexico, a Killing Zone for Journalists
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The front-page editorial in the newspaper El Diario de Juarez was chilling. Directed at the drug cartels that have slaughtered nearly 5,000 people in less than two years in Juarez, a Mexican town just across the border from El Paso, Texas, it asked: "What do you want from us?" As the AP reports, the editorial, which on the surface seemed to wave a white flag of surrender to Mexico's drug lords, sparked a national debate about the violence and the government's seeming inability to stop it, and about how press freedom is threatened when journalists themselves are often the targets of drug assassins.
