Spanish journalist Jose Couso, killed on Tuesday

The wall-to-wall coverage of the war in Iraq sets it apart from any other conflict we have known. But this unprecedented exposure to frontline action has come at a price to the media.

On Tuesday, three more journalists died, bringing the total of casualties working for the media to 12, in less than three weeks.

The heavy toll highlights the dangers reporters and their crews face in trying to cover modern wars, says Peter McIntyre, author of Live News: the Survival Guide for Journalists.

List of media casualties

A worrying trend over recent years has been the specific targeting of journalists. Once, foreign correspondents could say what they liked, without much fear that it would seep back to the country where they were based.

Satellite TV and the internet mean their output now can be monitored from anywhere in the world.

So far, there doesn't seem to have been any sign of targeting in Iraq. Some of the deaths have been down to the sort of mistakes and random dangers that war throws up.

But it could yet become an issue, says McIntyre.

"The question is whether journalists will come to be identified with the country of their origin.

Emphasis on pictures

"If the war intensifies in Baghdad and there's growing bitterness, then I would worry for the journalists there."

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Another concern is that today's superior technology has placed a greater emphasis on pictures, be they for TV or the press. And as every cameraman knows, the best pictures come from "getting in close".

Certainly, the images and reports that have been fed back by "embedded" journalists - those who are travelling with the coalition forces - have, at times, been compelling.

Tina Carr of the Rory Peck Trust, a charity which promotes the work of freelance media workers, fears the demands for ever better pictures will see news crews taking ever greater risks.

Peter McIntyre agrees. "There is often an unspoken pressure from base to produce pictures and take the extra risk. So a journalist thinks, 'if that city is open maybe I should be on the first truck in'."

Safety courses

However, employers are also taking steps to reduce the risks. Major broadcasters are putting journalists on safety courses as a matter of course and, says Carr, they're insisting freelancers also have the necessary training before taking them on.

Journalist Robert Fisk says media and military have got too close

For some though, the current conflict has already become too heated. The Greek government has urged all 16 Greek journalists in Baghdad to come home. Australia too has warned its journalists to leave northern Iraq.

Yet the greatest danger is not to the reporters whose faces we see in our living rooms every night, but the local journalists, media workers and "fixers" who are either working independently or with foreign media.

Of the 1,192 journalists who have been killed since 1990, more than 90% were born and grew up in the country where they died.

Media casualties of the war:
• Tareq Ayub, of Al-Jazeera TV, killed in US air raid
• Taras Protsyuk, Ukrainian cameraman with Reuters, and Jose Couso, Spanish cameraman with Telecinco, killed by US tank fire
• Julio Anguita Parrado, of Spanish paper El Mundo and journalist, Christian Liebig with the German magazine Focus, killed by Iraqi missile
• David Bloom, NBC correspondent, dies of blood clot (non-military related)
• Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed, Kurdish translator for BBC crew, killed by US missile
• Michael Kelly, US reporter for Atlantic Monthly, killed in vehicle accident
• Kaveh Golestan, Iranian cameraman for BBC, killed by landmine
• Paul Moran, Australian cameraman, killed in car bomb
• Gaby Rado, reporter for ITN, fell from a roof
• Terry Lloyd, British reporter for ITN, thought to have been shot mistakenly by coalition forces