Tuesday Map: Dying to tell the story

It's a tough world for journalists these days. Reporters attempting to shed light on tragedy, corruption, and death often encounter all three. The recent political violence in Zimbabwe may be the perfect example, and Sri Lanka is not far behind. Reporters in war zones face the obvious perils of combat-related injury or death, not to mention kidnappings at the hands of guerrilla groups. Iraq continues to rank as the most dangerous country in the world for journalists.

The following interactive map from MSN and the International News Safety Institute allows us to see where journalists have been killed in 2008:

Not surprisingly, death statistics tend to follow the political and social conditions in a given country. A reporter investigating gangs in Panama was stabbed to death. The same is true of India, where Mohammad Muslimuddin was killed in April after he exposed a drug-trafficking ring.