Activists say more than 140 journalists have been killed in Iraq in the past 10 years, one of the highest casualty rates in the world.

Dibras al-Ma'mouri founded the Iraqi Women Journalists Forum. She says female Iraqi reporters face even more challenges, from security forces as well as from colleagues.

“In Iraqi society they look at women as a lowly thing, not a working human being," she says. "They harass them. They try to prevent them from working. They think the woman was made just for housework and nothing else.”

Kareem of Baghdadia-TV says objective reporting by Iraq's journalists is also rare.

“About 90 percent of Iraqi journalists follow some ideological, political or sectarian opinion," he says. "A few are working objectively. They are the ones who face problems with the government.”

Media activists say laws are needed to allow journalists to work freely in Iraq and to protect them.