'Restrepo' filmmaker Tim Hetherington killed photographing war in Libya

Tim Hetherington, the photojournalist and codirector of “Restrepo,” the Oscar-nominated documentary film about the war in Afghanistan, was killed in Libya Wednesday.

Three other journalists were wounded – two of them severely – in what reportedly was an attack by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) or mortar round.

Mr. Hetherington’s last message on Twitter, posted Tuesday, read: "In besieged Libyan city of Misurata. indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO."

The attack, which occurred as journalists were traveling with rebel forces in Libya, comes at a time when journalism has become an increasingly dangerous job around the world.

Since 1992, 895 journalists have been killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), including 14 so far in 2011. Some of these have been in combat situations; others occurred in countries with repressive regimes or – as in the case of Mexico – as a result of drug cartel violence.

These are the 10 “deadliest countries” for journalists, according to the CPJ. Countries and number of journalists killed since 1992: Iraq (149), Philippines (71), Algeria (60), Russia (52), Colombia (43), Pakistan (35), Somalia (34), India (27), Mexico (25), and Afghanistan (22).

The United States has been involved in at least one controversial incident that took the lives of journalists. The WikiLeaks controversy began with the release of graphic gun-camera video showing US Apache attack helicopters killing about a dozen people, including two Reuters news agency employees in Baghdad in 2007. According to an internal US military investigation, the US Army helicopter pilots acted in accordance with both the laws of war and the Army’s rules of engagement with the enemy.

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