Sri Lanka [Images] has been rated as the third most dangerous country in the world for journalists after Iraq and Somalia and just ahead of Pakistan, by an independent monitoring body, the Press Emblem Campaign.

Sri Lanka ranks third, with seven journalists killed in 2007 against four last year due to the intensity of the civil war, said the PEC Ticking Clock that monitors the journalist causalities on a monthly basis.

India shares the ninth place along with Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, and Guatemala, with two journalists killed in each country in 2007.

Pakistan comes fourth with five journalist casualties. "The continued deterioration is clear in Pakistan, where five journalists were killed," the PEC said.

The PEC, founded in June 2004 by a group of journalists from several countries based in Switzerland [Images], is an independent humanitarian association aiming to strengthen the legal protection and safety of journalists in zones of conflict and civil unrest.

According to the campaign monitoring system, never before have so many journalists been killed globally in one year, the total up to date is 110, as compared with 96 in 2006 and 68 in 2005.

"Therefore, the 2007 year causality figure reflects a new deterioration for freedom of the press worldwide," it said, adding 2007's tally represents a 14 per cent increase over the 2006 figure.

In total, journalists have been killed in 27 countries led by those killed in Iraq, the most dangerous for the fifth consecutive year, with 50 journalists killed in 2007, against 48 in 2006 and at least 250 since the war was launched in Iraq in March 2003.