PARIS - Journalists suffered one of their deadliest years ever in 2006, with Iraq once again proving the most dangerous place in the world for the media to work, two media watchdogs said Sunday.

Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RSF) said at least 81 reporters and 32 media staff were killed in 2006 as a result of their jobs, saying the death toll was the highest since 1994 when scores of reporters died in the Rwandan genocide.

The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) put the 2006 toll at 155 murders, giving no separate breakdown between reporters and their staff.

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"2006 was the worst year on record. A year of targeting, brutality and continued impunity in the killing of journalists," IFJ General-Secretary Aidan White said in a statement.

There was no clear reason for the disparity in death tolls, but media organizations sometimes produce different statistics because they use different criteria to classify reporters.

In its annual report, RSF said at least 871 reporters were arrested in 2006 and at least 1,472 attacks or threats were registered against the media around the world - a new record.

For the fourth year running, Iraq claimed the highest number of deaths, with 39 journalists killed there against 24 in 2005, according to RSF, which said 25 media assistants had also died in Iraq in 2006. The IFJ put the Iraq toll at 68 for this year.

"Since the beginning of the war [in 2003], 139 journalists have been killed in Iraq, more than double the number of journalists killed during 20 years of war in Vietnam," the RSF report said.

"In almost 90 percent of cases, the victims have been Iraqi journalists. Investigations have been extremely rare or else never took place," the report added.

RSF said the second most dangerous place for reporters this year was Mexico, which had overtaken Colombia to become the deadliest country for the media in the Americas.

Nine reporters were killed in Mexico in 2006 while trying to investigate drug traffickers or cover social violence.

The Philippines was the third most deadly country, registering sixth deaths - down one on 2005, RSF said.

The IFJ said 13 journalists died in the Philippines this year and 10 in Mexico.

Russia also proved dangerous, with three journalists killed there, including Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of President Vladimir Putin, who was shot dead in Moscow in October.

"In all, 21 [journalists] have been killed [in Russia] since Vladmir Putin took power in March 2000," RSF said, adding the Kremlin had put together a team of 150 investigators to look into the Politkovskaya killing.

RSF said the high number of threats and attacks against the media was partly explained by the high number of election campaigns this year, with reporters targeted in Peru, Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, Belarus, Uganda and Ethiopia.

The media group said the situation in Bangladesh was particularly bad ahead of elections in 2007.

RSF said the number of registered cases of censorship fell to 912 this year from 1,006 in 2005, with the situation in Nepal notably improving.

But it said the Internet remained tightly controlled in many countries, with 13 states branded as "enemies of the Web": Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Myanmar, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.