The World Association of Newspapers showed concern today about the difficult situation many journalists face.

64 of them died in 2007. Many are imprisoned. Others sustain daily threats. A tragic situation indeed.

But as one of my journalist friends says, risk is part of the job. Adrenaline is actually a reason why so many youngsters crave to become war reporters.

Why such a fuss? Compared to other industries, journalism is quite safe.

From the list above, only cheese-making can be considered safer. Even in 2006 Russia, when 10 journalists were killed in action, the death rate stood at 100 per million, 20 times less than the rate sustained by US police officers.

(OK, it may be disingenuous, but I didn’t include metallurgy or other heavy industries which are actually less lethal than journalism.)

The attention given to journalists’ dying has more to do with corporatist interest than objectivity.

Policemen tend to get killed on the job 40 times more often than journalists. A quick search on Google News shows there are only twice as many articles about policemen getting killed than there are about journalism-related deaths. And there are more policemen than journalists.

Such a hypertrophied self-consciousness does not serve freedom of expression. From dreadful events that harm fundamental liberties, journalism’s fatalities are turned into yet another example of navel-gazing.