Journalism's fallen heroes

THIS IS International Press Freedom Day, when newspapers around the world reprint a charter of principles to encourage an unfettered press, including such basics as editorial independence, access to printing facilities, and ease of movement across borders. But no press can be free when reporters are routinely killed while doing their jobs, and last year, 78 brave journalists died covering the news, making 2004 the third-deadliest year for reporters since 1812.

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The numbers are compiled by the Freedom Forum in Arlington, Va., which will be inscribing the 78 names to its Journalists Memorial in a rededication ceremony today. The war in Iraq is responsible for 25 of the deaths, raising to 45 the number of journalists who have died covering the war in just the past two years. By contrast, 63 journalists died covering the Vietnam War over the full 20 years of that conflict. Reporters from Germany, Japan, and Poland were among the dead, as well as 12 journalists from Iraq itself.

Reporters covering that war must also fear arrests and kidnappings; at least 22 journalists were taken hostage in 2004, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, and one of them -- Enzo Baldoni of Italy --was executed.

''The entire world community loses when eyewitnesses to history are killed," says Margaret Engle, managing editor of the Freedom Forum's Newseum, a cosponsor of today's event.

After Iraq, the most dangerous place to be a journalist in 2004 was the Philippines, where eight reporters were killed, all by gunmen, most of them targeted for reporting stories critical of local police, politicians, or criminal gangs. These deaths are even more chilling to the free exercise of the news than the casualties in a war zone. The Committee to Protect Journalists complains of a ''widespread culture of impunity that perpetrated violence against journalists" there.

Ostensibly a democratic republic with constitutional guarantees of free speech, the Philippines is beset by summary killings of judges, human rights workers, and journalists who dare to cross powerful interests. Romeo Binungcal, a correspondent for the Manila newspaper Bulgar, was murdered in retaliation for his reporting on local police corruption, according to colleagues. Rogelio Mariano, a radio commentator, was struck by 15 bullets. His final broadcast was about alleged illegalities in an electricity cooperative. According to the State Department, none of the 2004 murders of journalists in the Philippines has resulted in a conviction.

It is easy in these days of celebrity media to forget that, in much of the world, journalists are vulnerable to attack. Their work is vital to the exercise of democracy; their courage should be hailed by all who love freedom.