SHIJIAZHUANG, Nov. 8(Xinhuanet)-- A Chinese photographer was killed in a traffic accident for his work on Tuesday when most of the media workers embraced their own festival, which once again placed the safety issue of journalists in the limelight.

A Xinhua News Agency photographer suffered grave injuries in a traffic accident Monday morning on the way to cover mine cave-ins in north China's Hebei Province and died in a local hospital Tuesday, China's 6th Journalist Day.

Zhou Wenguang, who had been working in the press circle for about 25 years, including the latest ten years in Xinhua's Hebei Bureau, won an award for his outstanding contribution in China's nation-wide campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome(SARS) in 2003.

The press car, carrying Zhou and two other Xinhua reporters to the site of the mine accident, overturned and fell into the roadside ditch when avoiding a pedestrian who suddenly appeared infront of the vehicle.

Zhou was born in 1957 and has a teenage daughter.

Another Xinhua photographer, Wang Yan, lost his life at a fieldwork in Beijing in September, when he was 39.

Gan Yuanzhi, a hard-working reporter with the Hainan Daily based in south China's Hainan Province, died of paroxysmal heart attack for his job over a year ago.

China's press and journalist authorities have called on all media workers to learn from his spirit.

The barbarous bombing by the US-led NATO which led to the death of three Chinese reporters, including a female Xinhua correspondent, in Belgrade over six years ago, infuriated the Chinese authorities and its people.

The safety threats facing media workers have aroused great social concern, as more press professionals have risked their lives either in deliberate murders, physical attacks or revenges by various means.

"To be a media reporter is glorious, but one must share greatersocial responsibilities and endure more dangers," said Cai Liang, a junior majored in media at the Beijing-based Central University of Finance and Economics.

In a public survey carried out in 2003, 58.4 percent of the interviewees from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou agreed that journalists suffer most serious safety threats.

Another survey made by the China Correspondent Association(CCA)in 2003 in a total of 16 Chinese cities showed that over half of all the 1,476 interviewed media workers had suffered safety problems, including besiege, insult or attack, illegal detention, or retaliation.

Unofficial statistics showed that the profession has become China's third most dangerous job after coal miners and the police,and a large number of media reporters have got severe health problems.

those who always work under heavy pressures are prone to the diseases affecting stomach, liver, neck, heart and diabetes, according to doctors with a hospital in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.

The hospital held medical check-ups for groups of local media reporters before the Journalist Day, but the result showed that only 21 percent of them are healthy.

At least 129 media professionals were killed in 2004, including accidents and persons who may have been involved in political work,according to a report released by the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists in March.

"A qualified journalist should pursue justice, and always tell the truth," said Ye Chengqun, a program producer with the Anhui TVStation, stressing that"what's more difficult is to be brave forever when confronted with danger."

Officials with the CCA said that China should enrich and improve its current legal framework on the protection of the rights and interests of media professionals, who, on the other hand, should pay more attention to their own benefits while fulfilling their tasks. Enditem