By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday he is alarmed at the increasing number of journalists being targeted because of their work.

As a U.S.-based media watchdog warned of eroding press conditions around the world, Ban agreed, in a message to mark Thursday's World Press Freedom Day, that too often the media were faced with bids to restrict, deny or block their work.

"Most alarmingly, in seeking to shed light on the plight of others, journalists themselves become targets," he said. "This happens not just in the midst of armed conflict, but also in pursuit of stories on corruption, poverty and abuse of power."

Ban also reiterated a call for the immediate and safe release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston, 44, who was abducted in the Gaza Strip some six weeks ago. Johnston is the only foreign correspondent based full time in Gaza.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said its report naming the top 10 countries where press freedom has been eroded the most during the past five years should be regarded as an "alarm call for the world."

The report, released on Tuesday, found that freedom of the media has worsened the most between 2002 and 2007 in Ethiopia, Gambia, Russia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Pakistan, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Morocco and Thailand.

"It's becoming increasingly dangerous to be a journalist, especially a foreign correspondent," Robert Mahoney, CPJ deputy director, told a news conference on Wednesday. "Journalists are in the front line more and more."

"It used to be that a press pass was a passport to going into a country and a certain status, now a press pass is a liability," he said. "We have seen over the past few years journalists being targeted or kidnapped precisely because they're journalists."

Mahoney said seven out of every 10 journalists who died were murdered and not killed because they were caught in cross-fire or were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"They are deliberately targeted by interests, be they government, be they officials, criminal gangs, whoever, who do not like what the journalist is reporting and those journalists are killed for what they write," he said.

"And of those seven out of 10, 85 percent never receive justice, their families never receive justice," Mahoney said.

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