It's all fun and games until the mind wanders to you getting polonium-210'd for your work, and you decide 'my life isn't worth _this_.' It's kind of dumb people choose fear, but I understand it.
Being killed for your reporting happens to a lot of journalists. I think your comment about "dumb people choosing fear" is incredibly tone deaf. I don't see you risking your life to expose the Panama Papers and being blown up with a bomb for it. It's easy to write something so brave from behind your keyboard.