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Two journalists die while on assignment

Two journalists have died while on separate assignments in Afghanistan and Uganda this week.

by WAN-IFRA Staff executivenews@wan-ifra.org | March 12, 2014

On Tuesday in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nils Horner, a correspondent with Swedish radio, was shot dead. He was 51 years old.

Horner was shot while en route to a restaurant to interview survivors of a Taliban bombing. According to witness accounts, he was attacked by two armed men as he stepped out of his car. He died soon after.

Taliban splinter group Fidai Mahaz has claimed responsibility for Horner’s death, accusing him of being a spy for the British government.

The number of journalists killed on dangerous assignment has increased significantly since 2006, with 80 journalists dying, including 18 freelancers, between 2006 and 2014 according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The nations of Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq and Syria are the where the most journalists have died on ‘dangerous assignments’, with the majority of them working on political assignments.

Meantime, Matthew Power, an American travel journalist whose work had appeared in magazines such as GQMen’s Journal, and Businessweek, died while on assignment in Uganda this week. He was 39 years old.

Power was in Uganda for Men’s Journal, covering former British explorer Levison Wood, as he attempted to walk the length of the Nile River.

On Monday, Power fell ill, lost consciousness, and died hours later. The cause of death is believed to be heatstroke, although it will not be confirmed until an autopsy is completed later this week.

“No writer better represented (or loved) Men’s Journal as well and as fully as Matt did and we are proud to have published his work whenever we could,” Men’s Journal editors said on their website.

Harry Siegel of the New York Daily News said that Power’s writing “never gawked or preached. It only showed.”

Power’s journalism career saw him report from various locations around the world, including the Amazon rainforests, the Mississippi River, and the Philippines.

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