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The hazards of being a journalist

We may want to have news available to us 24/7, but those who bring it to us - that is, the journalists - are facing ever-increasing danger to life and limb.

"The ascendance of militant extremists and criminal gangs who abduct and kill reporters, combined with rising government repression in the cause of counterterrorism, has created the biggest threat to journalism in recent times, a press advocacy group said in an annual report on Monday.

The report, “Attacks on the Press,” by the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the menace was especially acute for freelancers, or independent journalists, whose resources and training are often limited, and who may have no established news organization to help them when they get into trouble.

“Journalists are being caught in a terror dynamic, in which they are threatened by nonstate actors who target them and governments that restrict civil liberties including press freedom in the name of fighting terror,” Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in announcing the report’s release.

He said the report provided new insights “into the myriad threats — from surveillance and self-censorship to violence and imprisonment — that make this the most deadly and dangerous period for journalists in recent history.”

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