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Three countries accounted for more than half of the deaths. In addition to the 15 killed in Iraq, seven were killed in the Philippines and six were killed in Colombia, WAN said in its annual report of journalists killed worldwide.

The 15 killed in Iraq included British journalists Richard Wild, a freelance photographer and former ITN worker, and ITN reporter Terry Lloyd, who was killed by friendly fire.

The figure however does not include those who died in Iraq of accidental causes such as Channel 4 journalist Gaby Rado who fell to his death from a hotel roof in the northern Iraqi town of Sulaymaniyah.

Kajsa Törnroth, director of press freedom programmes for WAN, said: "In addition to correspondents covering the Iraq war, journalists who investigated organised crime, drug trafficking and political corruption were also at high risk and many of the murders appear to be retributive attacks."

He added that in many cases the killers act with impunity and that most of the cases remain unsolved.

WAN said that the 2003 death toll compares with 46 killed in 2002, 60 killed in 2001 and 53 in 2000. In 1999 70 journalists died and 28 were killed in 1998.

Already this year a number of journalists have been killed in Iraq with three shot dead earlier this week when gunmen opened fire on a minibus, killing three Iraqi journalists and wounding nine other employees working for a Coalition-funded TV station in north-eastern Iraq.

As well as Iraq, the Philippines and Colombia, journalists and other media workers lost their lives in other countries that proved to be high risk including Brazil, Nepal and Russia, which claimed three lives each, while Pakistan and the Palestinian Territories each claimed two.

Paris-based WAN, which defends and promotes press freedom worldwide, includes all media workers killed in the line of duty or targeted because of their work in its figures. It also includes cases where the motive for the killings is unsure or where investigations have not been completed.

Details of all the murders are available on a special website, launched for on May 3.

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