One of the great virtues of the CPJ, as of Amnesty International and many other non-aligned groups, is that they treat every single death they track with equal seriousness, whatever the cause. In no other way can we learn to think intelligently about the many different forces of destruction at play in these situations, the different sources of hostility to freedom of expression.
Among the first targeted killings of journalists in Iraq were those of journalists working for al-Jazeera, targeted by American missiles that everyone acknowledges had to have been carefully guided and intentional. At least those killings are recorded here: it is hard to believe the U.S. government will ever be held to account for them.
Murdered by one side or the other, the stain on our so-called civilizations and our century is the same. Instances of the targeting of journalists have risen as the politicization of their work has, as news-gathering has been more and more politicized by governments and other power groups.
Sadly, some journalists have co-operated in the politicization of news-gathering, and in doing so have contributed to putting all their confreres in greater danger. Every American reporter who consented to being "embedded" with invading troops jumped the wrong way on ethical grounds, and the more common that sort of behaviour becomes, the more common will be the belief among peoples everywhere that reporters are nothing but propagandists for their own governments.
And so. Everyone is going to feel free to kill the messengers.