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Another dangerous year for journalists; suspect in killing of freelancer Bradley Will to go free

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In a bad-record year for the killings and jailings of journalists worldwide, Latin America remains a dangerous place, according to an annual survey by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Reporters were killed in Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador and Venezuela in 2009, the report said.

Iran joins China as the countries where most journalists were jailed. The report said freelancers and local reporters are at greater risk than ever because they are increasingly relied on by cash-strapped newspapers and magazines that have closed foreign bureaus.

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A total of 71 journalists were killed last year worldwide in incidents directly related to their work, an all-time high. You can read the full report on the CPJ website. For more on killings of reporters in Mexico, go to The Times’ special Web section Mexico Under Siege.

Bradley Will, one of only two U.S. journalists killed in Mexico since 1992, was shot while photographing a demonstration in the southern state of Oaxaca on Oct. 27, 2006. Will, a freelancer from New York, was 36.

On Wednesday, a court ordered the only man held in the killing, Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno, freed because of what it called faulty evidence. Martinez was a member of a pro-left indigenous group and his supporters have long contended that he was being railroaded.

The official Mexican news agency Notimex quoted Martinez’s lawyer as saying he expected his client to be freed within 24 hours. He was jailed nearly 16 months ago.

-- Tracy Wilkinson in Mexico City

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