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A dangerous year for journalists

On the heels of a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists that at least 70 journalists have been killed on the job this year, Al Jazeera announced on Monday that four of its journalists were arrested in Egypt.

Al Jazeera correspondent Peter Greste, producers Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed as well as cameraman Mohamed Fawzy are being held in custody in Cairo after being arrested by security forces on Sunday evening. The network is demanding their immediate release.

"Al Jazeera Media Network has been subject to harassment by Egyptian security forces which has arrested of our colleagues, confiscated our equipment and raided our offices despite that we are not officially banned from working there," a network spokesperson said in a statement on Al Jazeera.

According to the network there has also been a campaign against Al Jazeera in particular, "as the channel's offices were raided in August and security forces seized equipment which has yet to be returned."

The CPJ report released Monday said two-thirds of journalists killed occurred in the Middle East, with the long-standing conflict in Syria claiming the lives of at least 29 journalists in 2013. Syria, along with Iraq and Egypt were found to be the most dangerous for journalists. Around 44 percent of victims were singled out for murder, which the CPJ said is less than the historical average. Thirty-six percent of the journalists were killed in combat or crossfire, while 20 percent died during some other type of dangerous assignment.

"The Middle East has become a killing field for journalists. While the number of journalists killed for their work has declined in some places, the civil war in Syria and a renewal of sectarian attacks in Iraq have taken an agonizing toll," CPJ deputy director Robert Mahoney said in a statement. "The international community must prevail on all governments and armed groups to respect the civilian status of reporters and to prosecute the killers of journalists."

Pakistan, Somalia and Mexico saw decreases in the number of journalists killed, with Mexico having no journalists known to have been killed this year in the line of duty, the first such year in a decade (though CPJ says it is still investigating the motives for three killings there).

Brazil, which has been experiencing some turmoil as it gears up for the upcoming summer Olympics and World Cup, saw three provincial journalists killed after reporting on local crime and corruption.

The committee has been tracking journalists killed while reporting since 1992.

Hadas Gold is a reporter at Politico.