Steven Vincent

The U.S.-led war in Iraq claimed the lives of a record number of journalists and challenged some commonly held perceptions about the risks of covering conflict. Far more journalists, for example, were murdered in targeted killings in Iraq than died in combat-related circumstances. Here, on the 10th anniversary of the start of the war, is a look inside the data collected by CPJ.

IRAQ:

New York, February 11, 2008—CBS News is reporting that two unidentified journalists working for the network are missing in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Their statement said that “all efforts are under way to find them.”

Until the network learns more details, the statement said, “CBS News requests that others do not speculate on the identities of those involved. CBS News has been in touch with the families and asks that their privacy be respected.” Many major media outlets have refrained from reporting the details of the case to ensure the safety of the journalists.

New York, October 19, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by today's abduction in Baghdad of a veteran reporter for London's Guardian newspaper. The Guardian said it believes a group of armed men seized Rory Carroll, the paper's Baghdad correspondent, as he left a house in the Sadr City, a stronghold of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Carroll had been watching the televised trial of Saddam Hussein with a Baghdad family to learn what Iraqi citizens think about the proceedings, the Guardian said.

New York, August 3, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is shocked and alarmed by the murder of U.S. freelance journalist and author Steven Vincent, whose bullet-riddled body was found today in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Vincent, who had written for a number of U.S. publications and was working on a book, was abducted along with his translator, Ward al-Khal, on Tuesday by armed men driving what initial press reports described variously as a pickup truck or possibly a police car.