The number of journalists and other media staff killed around the world declined in 2008 but remains high, while virtually all of those responsible continue to go unpunished, a media safety group said Wednesday.

So far this year 80 media professionals have been killed, compared to 173 each in all of both 2007 and 2006, said the director of the International News Safety Institute, Rodney Pinder, at the group`s annual meeting in Valencia.

`The numbers are indeed down from the last year`s but we should be reminded that we have not improved on our record from since before the bloody wars in Afghanistan and Iraq got underway,` he said.

In 1998 the Brussels-based group recorded the deaths of 69 reporters or media support staff.

The weakening of the insurgency in Iraq, better security training and the increasing reluctance of journalists in risky regions like Latin America to tackle topics which could get them in trouble were cited for the decline in deaths this year.

`The murder of a journalist does not just get rid of a troublesome journalist, it also silences their colleagues,` said Pinder.

Nearly half of the media staff killed this year were shot dead, while 12 were blown up and three were beaten to death.

Of the cases where journalists were killed in action or murdered this year, there has been only one successful prosecution of the person responsible, the group said.

`There has been no progress whatsoever in dealing with the overriding problem of impunity,` it said in a report issued at the meeting.

Despite the improved security situation in Iraq, the country still recorded 15 deaths of reporters and other media staff this year, the most of any nation.

India, Pakistan and Georgia followed with five deaths each.

All five deaths in Georgia took place during the country`s five-day war with Russia in August, a toll which the group said `shows that despite the terrible losses in the Iraq war little progress has been made globally in the efforts to make war reporting less hazardous.`

The International News Safety Institute has trained 997 journalists and support staff in 17 countries, including Pakistan, Somalia and Kenya, since it was set up in 2003.

It is funded in part by contributions from the world`s major media outlets such as the BBC, CNN, Agence France-Presse, Reuters and The Associated Press.