Nasteh Dahir Faraah, a reporter for the Somali Service, was shot dead by gunmen in June 2008 near his home in Kismayo, southern Somalia. Nasteh was at an early stage of his career. He was trained under a BBC World Service Trust scheme and had a passion to become a journalist in a region where he knew the dangers he would face. He filed his last report just an hour before he was killed. He was 24 and his wife was expecting their second child.

One of his trainers said of Nasteh: "He was a promising journalist who had become a well known BBC voice..a young broadcaster with great energy and considerable courage".

Pashto Service reporter Abdul Samad Rohani was abducted and murdered in Helmand province, Afghanistan in June 2008. He was 25 and married with one daughter. He also worked with the network team shooting pictures that no one else could get, had invaluable contacts with insurgents and had interviewed senior Taleban commanders.

A colleague on the Pashto Service said: "Rohani wrote poems in Pashto - mostly about love - love for his wife, his daughter, his people and his country. In his poems, he also longs for peace and abhors violence. He was a gentleman."

BBC producer Kate Peyton was shot dead in Somalia on 9 February, 2005. She had gone to Mogadishu with reporter Peter Greste to cover talks on the return of the Somali government from exile in Kenya. As they were getting into their car after visiting the Sahafi Hotel to speak to officials, a shot rang out from a vehicle on the other side of the road. Kate was hit in the back. She was rushed to hospital for surgery but died later the same day.

Kate, 39, had worked for the BBC as a producer since 1993 and was based in Johannesburg at the time of her death. Former Africa Correspondent Jane Standley described her as a 'ray of sunshine' who had loved Africa with all her heart.

Cameraman and journalist Simon Cumbers, 36, was killed in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on 6 June, 2004. The BBC's Security Correspondent, Frank Gardner, was seriously injured in the same attack.

The two men had gone with a Saudi government minder to the al-Suwaydi district of Riyadh – near to the home of an al-Qaida militant killed the previous year. As they were filming, three vehicles drew up and a number of gunmen got out and opened fire.

The BBC's Correspondent, Orla Guerin, said that in a demanding industry, with the pressure of deadlines and danger, Simon had endless reservoirs of patience and good humour. 'It was Hemingway who said the definition of courage was grace under pressure; Simon was courage personified'.

Manik Saha was killed in a bomb attack outside the Press Club in the south-western port city of Khulna on 15 January, 2004. The home-made bomb struck him in the head as he headed home in a rickshaw. The bomb was thrown at him by a member of an outlawed Communist group active in the south-western region of Bangladesh for decades. The bomb caused severe head injuries and Saha died on the spot. At the time of his death Saha was a nationally-renowned journalist – rare for a journalist who’d never worked in the capital Dhaka. Saha contributed regularly to BBC Bengali output for nearly a decade, covering some highly sensitive areas like the Communist violence, disputes over shrimp cultivation and violation of human rights.

Cameraman Kaveh Golestan, 53, was killed in a landmine blast in Northern Iraq on 2 April, 2003. BBC producer Stuart Hughes was badly injured in the same incident.

Kaveh had worked for the BBC in a freelance capacity before becoming the BBC's bureau cameraman in Tehran, Iran in 1999. He was a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who had worked for many Western news organisations. He won particular acclaim for his work during the Iranian revolution and the Iraqi gas attacks on Kurdish villages.

BBC correspondent Jim Muir, who was with Kaveh in Northern Iraq, said: 'His energy, artistry, enthusiasm, sensitivity, courage and mischievous humour were only part of a complex, charming and gentle character who engaged all he met'.

Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed, 25, was fatally wounded on 6 April, 2003 in Northern Iraq. A US F-15 warplane mistakenly dropped a bomb on a convoy of US special forces and Kurdish civilians. BBC correspondent John Simpson, cameraman Fred Scott and other members of the BBC team accompanying the convoy were also injured.

Kamaran had been taken on by the BBC as a translator at the beginning of the Iraq conflict. John Simpson said the killing was ‘an absolute tragedy’. He described Kamaran as a ‘charming, brave, resourceful character’.

more >>