A Slovak journalist and his fiancée are shot dead in their home. A gunman storms a Maryland newsroom in a targeted attack on the staff. A writer walks into the Saudi Consulate in Turkey — and never walks out.

It’s been a deadly year for journalists, analysts say, even in democratic countries where press freedom has been seen as an essential part of civil society.

“Typically journalists are not murdered in the United States,” said Courtney Radsch, the advocacy director for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Typically they are not murdered in Western Europe. Yet we have seen it this year in both — which were previously considered bastions of press freedom — that journalists are being murdered and that there is a parallel of anti-press rhetoric happening.”

So far this year, at least 43 journalists have been killed around the world as a result of their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. That number is outpacing last year, and does not include 17 other deaths in which the motive has not been confirmed.