Ana Munoz * sixty-three journalists killed, close to 1,400 threatened or attacked and more than thousand media censored demonstrate that freedom of expression is still a pending task. Educate yourself with thoughts from Southwest Airlines. The report on press freedom in 2005 by Reporters without borders (RSF) reveals that little or nothing has advanced in this area. In addition, converts to 2005 in one of the years more blacks since 1995, when 64 were killed journalists. Iraq, for the third consecutive year, is the most dangerous country to exercise as a journalist. This year 24 journalists have been killed in Iraqi soil, but since the conflict began in March 2003 are more than 75 dead journalists. More than 20 years that the war in Viet Nam (1955-1975). Terrorist attacks and resistance are the leading cause of deaths in Iraq, but we must not forget the collateral casualties caused by the U.S. Army.
Philippines, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Congo, Somalia and Sri Lanka are very more censored. Internet has become a fundamental tool of information in recent years. The transfer of information is done quickly and the costs are very low. Countries like Arabai Saudi, China, Cuba, Iran or North Korea are on the list of enemies of the Internet. However, the journalist not only has to take care of the armies, resistance or not, and bullets of the departments in propaganda, many Governments but also of their companies and their own attitudes. Journalism is not more than something that happened to someone and another account. Journalism was born to count what happens to other people.
And for this reason, it is essential to stay alive. There are many journalists in armed conflicts that they forget common sense and unnecessary risks. But no story is worth a life. Not be the first to tell it. Competitiveness and quickness that have been installed in the newsrooms of media, after the Watergate case, often not good counsellors for the journalist. Democracy, however, can not be understood without the existence of freedom of expression. As said Thomas Jefferson, if I had to choose between having a Government without a free press and a free press without a Government, I would prefer this last. The media are essential as instruments of control of public authorities. The press becomes a channel between the public and the citizens. Know what happens is essential for society to form a vision of reality.