THE death of Gemaro Perez on Tuesday has a grim significance. The Mexican shot dead at his six-year-old son’s Christmas party is the 12th journalist to be killed so far this year — bringing Mexico equal with Syria as the deadliest country in the world in which to practise the profession.

While it is small comfort to the relatives of reporters kidnapped and put to death by jihadist gangs or blown up by suicide bombers, the reasons it is dangerous for journalists in Syria are obvious.

A brutal war is raging, and rebel groups under the Isis or al-Qaida umbrellas do not even pretend to respect the idea of a free media or worry about limiting civilian deaths.