Fifty-four journalists have died in 2004, the Committee to Protect Journalists has reported. That makes it the worst year in a decade.

According to a BBC story on the CPJ's news release, Iraq was the worst (big surprise there) with 23 journos killed.

However, it didn't mention this sentence from the CPJ release:  The vast majority of those killed were Iraqi journalists, who were targeted by insurgents, caught in crossfire, or killed by U.S. forces' fire.

The total number of dead journos in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion is 36, plus 18 crew members.

Second-worst in 2004, however, was the Philippines, with eight dead.

 A culture of impunity has contributed to this deadly trend: No one has been brought to justice in the murders of at least 48 journalists since the Philippines became a democracy in 1986.

Here are some useful CPJ links:

List of journalists killed this year
List of journalists killed in the last 10 years