The Committee to Protect Journalists, an organization that tracks deaths of reporters and broadcasters, said that at least 70 journalists were killed in 2013, according to MSN News.
Of the 70 that were reported killed, 29 died covering the Syrian civil war, while 10 were slain in Iraq, the report said.
A number of citizen journalists died in Syria who happened to be documenting the combat in their home cities. Broadcasters who worked in media outlets from both sides of the political divide also died. Even a handful of correspondents for the foreign press were part of the casualties including Mohamed al-Mesalma who was reportedly shot by a sniper.
In Egypt, six journalists died and half of them were killed while covering the August 14 crackdown of Egyptian security forces of protestors against President Mohammed Morsi.
"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," Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, 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."
Since 1992, the New York-based committee has been tracking deaths and casualties among reporters and broadcasters.
The committee has documented the killings and said that over the years, journalist deaths involved people who are covering news in their homes or areas where they live. In 2013, the committee said that not much has changed.
The committee also said that many of the deaths took place during combat and the casualties are high in conflict zones. However, it also reported that in several countries, journalists were also murdered after covering sensitive subjects.
For example, reporters and commentators who covered police abuse, corruption or drug trafficking were slain in separate incidents in countries like Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Russia, the report said.
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