] "Since 1997, 352 journalists have been killed at the rate
] of nearly five per month, many of them in the most
] appalling of circumstances."
 . . .
] Between January 1, 1997 and April 19, 2003, 43
] journalists were killed in Africa, 109 in the Americas,
] 76 in Asia, 85 in Europe and 39 in the Middle East and
] North Africa, the IPI said.

Which doesn't mean that it's open season on journalists, since a lot of them do routinely put themselves in harm's way, so a lot of other people were dying around them when many of those journalists were caught in the crossfire.

I found these numbers interesting though, as I continue surfing and looking for more information on the deaths of the journalists in Baghdad a few weeks ago. It's a story that I don't want to let fade, and I do want to find out the truth of just what happened that day.