In what seems to be a deterioration of conditions for journalists in volatile Iraq, the director of an Iraqi television station was killed in Baghdad today, according to a report from CNN.  Taha Hameed, the head of al-Massar TV, was driving with Iraqi human rights activist Abed Farhan Thiyab when they were “shot dead by gunmen who attacked their car with small arms fire,” CNN reported today.

Hameed is the fifth journalist to be killed this year in Iraq, according to the IPI DeathWatch. No journalists had been killed in Iraq at this point last year.