Journalism isn't a profession you get into if you want an easy ride. This has certainly proven true for journalists covering Africa in 2011, many of whom paid with their lives. Challenges in 2012 include covering ongoing conflict zones, election periods, and continuing the fight for access to information.

As another new year rolls around, it's back to the grindstone – for the employed among us anyway. But for some people returning to work the stakes are higher than others. There are the obvious jobs that involve occupational hazards: soldier, policeman, spy, to name just a few. You can add “journalist” to that list. Journalists in Africa (and throughout the world) increasingly risk censure, intimidation, jail time, and even being killed – simply for doing their jobs.

2011 was a turbulent year for Africa's journalists – and not all of them escaped with their lives. According to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists, 12 journalists in Africa were killed last year: five in Libya, including Anton Hammerl; two in Egypt; two in Somalia; and one in each of Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, and Tunisia. In addition, three media workers were killed: in Somalia, Libya, and Côte d'Ivoire. And the true figure could well be higher. CPJ only includes in its tally journalists who have been killed in cross fire, while covering dangerous stories, or deliberately taken out as a result of their work, and the organisation is currently investigating the deaths of three more journalists – Charles Ingabire in Uganda; and two others in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone.

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