Al Jazeera Special Series

Murder is the leading cause of work-related deaths for journalists as censorship increases worldwide. Journalists have been killed, attacked, kidnapped, or forced into exile because of their coverage of war, crime and corruption. In 2006, UN resolution 1738, which demanded greater safety for journalists in conflict areas, was passed. Since then, over 600 news media workers have been killed, while more have been imprisoned or disappeared while on the job. Countless others have been intimidated into self-censorship or have gone into exile. Journalists reporting from Mexico, Russia and the conflict zones of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria tell their personal stories of kidnapping, intimidation, and beatings. They have experienced the loss of colleagues in the field and have been close to death themselves. Killing the Messenger features exclusive, first-hand accounts of journalists who have faced dire consequences in their pursuit of the news. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2014/07/killing-messenger-201478101852958418.html

In 1967, at the height of the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, the Israeli Air Force launched an unprovoked attack on the USS Liberty, a US Navy spy ship that was monitoring the conflict from the safety of international waters in the Mediterranean. Israeli jet fighters hit the vessel with rockets, cannon fire and napalm, before three Israeli torpedo boats moved in to launch a second more devastating attack. Though she did not sink, the Liberty was badly damaged. Thirty-four US servicemen and civilian analysts were killed, another 171 were wounded. Later Israel apologized for what it claimed to be a tragic case of mistaken identity. It said that it had believed the ship to be hostile Egyptian naval vessel. US President Lyndon Johnson was privately furious but publicly the White House chose not to challenge the word of its closest Middle East ally and accepted that the attack had been a catastrophic accident. However, as this exclusive Al Jazeera investigation reveals, fresh evidence throws new light on exactly what happened that fateful day - and the remarkable cover up that followed.