Jonathan Baker, who recently finished a five-year stint as the BBC's world news editor, talks about keeping journos safe in these dangerous times for the craft.

An excerpt:

We earnestly believe it when we say that no story is worth a life.

But we also believe in getting as close to the action as we safely can and reporting what we see with our own eyes.

We know that is one of the things audiences value most.

Iraq operation

This tension has been in daily evidence in the last three years in our coverage of Iraq.

The security situation has steadily deteriorated and with it our capacity for wide-ranging first-hand reporting.

We are seldom able to venture far beyond the confines of our Baghdad office.

We have to set the editorial value of what coverage is possible, against the risks we ask our staff to take in providing it.

No-one signs up in the hope of being imprisoned, kidnapped or shot at, but these are becoming occupational hazards

Fifteen journalists were killed in the space of three weeks during the invasion of Iraq. Two of them were working for the BBC.

In all, four people working for us were killed on my watch and a number of others were grievously injured.

So taking a front seat in the making of history as a foreign correspondent is seldom as glamorous as it might sound - still less so for the support staff who keep them on the air but never taste the fame themselves.

We list 60 countries in which we consider reporting to be dangerous.

No-one signs up in the hope of being imprisoned, kidnapped or shot at, but these are becoming occupational hazards in more and more places.