Journalism Under the Gun : Radio: Voice of America has enemies everywhere.

The report earlier this month from the Committee to Protect Journalists that 72 reporters were killed last year in the line of duty has given us special pause at the Voice of America.

One of our own former stringers, Angolan journalist Ricardo de Mello, started this year’s grim list. He had been reporting on alleged corruption in the Angolan police and military, and was assassinated in Luanda on Jan. 17.

Virtually every hour of every day, on every continent, men and women gather and report the news for the Voice of America. They do so in English and 46 other languages, airing about 200 original stories a day. They work under extraordinary conditions and face substantial risks precisely because they report for America’s voice to the world and are heard in the very countries from which they are filing their reports.

Some recent incidents underscore these special risks:

Last month, in the Albanian city of Gjirokaster, VOA stringer Gezim Basha was threatened at his home after he reported allegations of smuggling by former finance minister Genc Ruli. The intruders demanded a retraction. Basha filed not a retraction but a complaint with the local prosecutor’s office, and three people were subsequently taken into custody.

Nigerian VOA correspondent Sani Abdullahi was jailed for a week in January after reporting a Muslim mob attack on a Christian trader.

In August, VOA journalist Shehu Kura, who was reporting in the Hausa language, was beaten by government security forces as he covered a demonstration in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.

Similarly, several of our 1,400 independent radio station affiliates have suffered retaliation for carrying our broadcasts.

Just last week, the Serbian government told a VOA affiliate, Studio B in Belgrade, that its founding in 1990 was illegal and that it will probably have to go off the air. Station owners believe that the demise of Studio B will also mean the end of the other independent stations in the country, all of which carry VOA programs.

VOA affiliate BOOM 93 in the city of Pozarevac has been bedeviled by suspicious power outages.

Our Sarajevo affiliate, Radio Zid, the only independent station in the city and an important source of information for its besieged residents, is under a different kind of threat. The Bosnian government has announced its intention to draft into the military all seven of the station’s male staff members.

Late last year, in Sumatra, Indonesia, our affiliate Radio Ratu Anda Suara received official documents ordering the cessation of live feeds from VOA. Happily, the station successfully appealed the order and the feeds resumed a few weeks ago.

On this date 53 years ago, the VOA first took to the world’s airwaves as an antidote to Nazi propaganda and to the enemies of press freedom everywhere. Today, we are broadcasting a special series of programs in all 47 languages in celebration of the work of the courageous journalists who are continuing this tradition.