At least 70 journalists were killed on the job around the world in 2013, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes and defends press freedom. Two-thirds of the journalists died in the Middle East.
Though the total is down slightly from the 74 journalists killed working in 2012, the deaths of 25 other journalists in 2013 are still being investigated.
Like all journalists reporting from dangerous, conflict-ridden areas, those who were killed were aware their safety could be put in jeopardy. Still they strived to report the facts from the Mideast, Pakistan, Somalia, India, Brazil, the Philippines, Mali and Russia, each of which saw multiple deaths of journalists. Their work, along with its meaning and importance, is recorded for posterity on the CPJ site. Their loss is both a loss of life and the loss of the truth of what was happening in their home countries, where most journalists are killed.