Three journalists were killed in Egypt on Wednesday as violence between ousted president Mohamed Morsi's supporters and the police escalated. The deaths marked two grim milestones in journalistic freedom: they occurred on the one-year anniversary of freelance reporter Austin Tice's disappearance while on assignment in Syria — and they marked the Committee to Protect Journalist's 1,000th death in the line of duty since it began counting in 1992.
Sky News cameraman Mick Deane, 61, was shot and killed while covering protests in Cairo's Nasr City district. Sky News head John Ryler described the father of two as "a really lovely, lovely guy. He was great fun to work with, he was an astonishingly good cameraman who took some brilliant pictures. But he also had a first-class editorial brain. He had brilliant ideas."
Also read: 2012 Bloodiest Year for Journalists, With 88 Killed
Deane's death marked the 1,000th in the Committee to Protect Journalists' count of journalists killed in the line of duty since 1992. CPJ deputy editor Robert Mahoney said in a statement: "the Egyptian government must allow all journalists to work freely. They should also conduct an immediate investigation into who killed Mick Deane and hold those responsible to account."
Two other journalists were also killed, though it has not yet been confirmed that they were working as journalists at the time of their deaths. Habiba Ahmed Abd Elaziz, 26, was shot in Cairo, though XPRESS, the UAE-based publication for which she worked, reported that she was in Egypt on vacation.
Also read: BBC Reporter Shot in Head, Still Reporting in Cairo
Ahmed Abdel Gawad, who wrote for Egypt's state-run newspaper Al Akhbar, was also killed on Wednesday, though the circumstances surrounding his death are still unknown. The Egyptian Press Syndicate confirmed the death to the Associated Press.
Wednesday also marked the anniversary of freelance reporter Austin Tice's disappearance in Syria. Tice, who turned 32 on Sunday, is believed to have been detained by the Syrian government on Aug. 14, 2012. Another freelance American journalist, James Foley, disappeared in Syria on Nov. 22, 2012.
According to CPJ, 33 journalists have been killed in the line of duty in 2013.