The Philippines has been ranked the second deadliest country for journalists as of 2011 due to “persistent violence” confronting media personnel, especially those working in the provinces.

“Despite high levels of press and internet freedom, provincial journalists worked under the constant threat of reprisal,” said the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in its annual report released today.

At least 72 journalists have been killed for their work since 1992, making the Philippines the second deadliest country in the world for journalists, the report said.

Iraq tops the 2011 list, with 151 cases, followed by the Philippines (72), Algeria (60 ), Russia (53), Colombia (43), Pakistan (42), Somalia (37), India (27), Mexico (27), and Afghanistan (24).

The country also ranks 3rd in the organization’s Impunity Index, a ranking of countries based on unsolved journalist murder cases.

At least 56 journalist’s murders have gone unsolved over the past decade.

The report also observed that nearly two years after the killing of 57 people, 32 of whom were journalists, in the southern Philippines, “the fight for justice has simultaneously intensified in rhetoric and bogged down in technicalities.”

“Legal stalling tactics, a fractured prosecution, and slow-moving courts have conspired against a speedy trial,” the report added.