Journalists
Killed in 1996: 26 Confirmed
Algeria:
7 Mohamed Mekati, El-Moudjahid, January 10, 1996, Ain Naadja
Mekati, a correspondent for the government-owned newspaper El-Moudjahid, was shot near his home in Ain Naadja southwest of Algiers January 9. He died the next day.
Abdallah Bouhachek, Révolution et Travail, February 10, 1996, Blida
Bouhachek, editor of Révolution et Travail, the weekly of Algeria's largest workers union, was shot and killed near the town of Blida, south of Algiers, on his way to work.
Allaoua Ait M'barak, Le Soir d'Algérie, February 11, 1996, Algiers
Mohamed Dorbane, Le Soir d'Algérie, February 11, 1996, Algiers
Djamel Derraz, Le Soir d'Algérie, February 11, 1996, Algiers
M'barak, Dorbane, and Derraz, journalists with the independent evening daily Le Soir
d'Algérie, were killed while working at the Maison de la Presse in Algiers when a car bomb exploded outside the building. Three other daily newspapers whose offices are also in the building were damaged, and at least 15 other people were killed. Islamic militants are thought to be responsible for the attack.
Djilali Arabidou, Algérie-Actualité, March 12, 1996, Ain Naadja
Arabidou, a photojournalist for the pro-government weekly Algérie-Actualité, was fatally shot in a suburb of Algiers, Ain Naadja. Islamic militants are thought to be responsible for his murder.
Mohamed Guessab, Algerian Radio, August 12, 1996, Algiers
Guessab, host of "Radio Koran," a religious program on state-run Algerian Radio, was fatally shot while driving with his two brothers, one of whom was killed and the other seriously wounded, in the Algiers suburb of Beau Fraisier. Islamic militants are thought to be responsible for his murder.
Angola: 1
Antonio Casemero, Televisao Popular de Angola, October 30, 1996, Cabinda
Casemero, a correspondent in Cabinda for Televisao Popular de Angola, the state-owned television station, was fatally shot October 30 at his home in Cabinda, reportedly by police. Colleagues say that a regional official in Cabinda had harassed him several weeks earlier.
Bangladesh: 1
Mohammad Quamruzzaman, Neel Sagar, February 19, 1996, Nilphamari
Quamruzzaman, a reporter for the weekly newspaper Neel Sagar, was fatally shot by police while covering their crackdown on a violent protest against election results in the northern town of Nilphamari.
Cambodia: 1
Thun Bun Ly, Odom K'tek Khmer, May 18, 1996, Phnom Penh
Bun Ly, a writer and former editor of the opposition newspaper Odom K'tek Khmer, was fatally shot while riding a motorcycle in central Phnom Penh. The journalist was appealing two convictions charges of defamation and disinformation for criticizing the government in articles and cartoons. The paper was ordered closed by the government in May 1995.
Colombia: 1
Norvey Díaz, Radio Colina, October 18, 1996, Girardot
Díaz, director and editor of "Rondando los Barrios" on Radio Colina, was found murdered, a gunshot wound in his neck, in the resort town of Girardot. He had received death threats because of his reporting on alleged police involvement in the murder of homeless people and on investments in local resorts by drug traffickers.
Cyprus: 1
Kutlu Adali, Yeni Duzen, July 6, 1996, Lefkosa
Adali, a political columnist with the leftist newspaper Yeni Duzen in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, was fatally shot in front of his home. He had written critically about the Northern Cypriot government's immigration policies enabling Turkish nationals to live and work in Cyprus. A little-known group called the Turkish Revenge Brigade claimed responsibility for his assassination, but he had also received threats for a recent investigative report on an antiquities heist said to involve a Turkish general.
India: 2
Ghulam Rasool Sheikh, Rehnuma-e-Kashmir and Saffron Times, April 10, 1996, Kashmir
Sheikh, editor of the Urdu-language daily Rehnuma-e-Kashmir and the English-language weekly Saffron Times, was found dead on April 10 floating in Kashmir's Jhelum River. He had written about an increase in killings and arson incidents his hometown, Pampur. Family members say a militia group backed by Indian state security forces had kidnapped him in March.
Parag Kumar Das, Asomiya Pratidin, May 17, 1996, Assam
Das, editor-in-chief of the largest circulation daily in Assam, Asomiya Pratidin, was fatally shot in the state capital, Guwahati, as he was picking up his 7-year-old son from school. He was the leading journalistic voice for self-rule for Assam and had continued covering separatist perspectives despite arrests in 1992 and 1993. A monitor of human rights, he also published a newsletter that reported on army and counterinsurgency abuses against the Assamese. Colleagues believe his recent interview with the leader of the separatist United Liberation Front of Assam triggered his assassination by a splinter group.
Indonesia: 1
Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin, Bernas, August 16, 1996, Yogyakarta
Syafruddin, a correspondent for the Yogyakarta daily Bernas, died from injuries sustained during a beating by unidentified assailants. Two visitors to Syafruddin's house beat him with a metal rod on August 13, inflicting serious injuries to his head and stomach. The assailants fled on a motorcycle immediately after the attack. Syafruddin, also known as Udin, was admitted to the intensive care unit of a Catholic hospital in Yogyakarta but never regained consciousness. He died in the hospital three days after the attack. Local sources speculated that Syafruddin's death may have been related to his articles on land disputes and government corruption in Bantul, the Yogyakarta suburb that he covered for Bernas.
CPJ sent a letter to President Suharto on August 20 expressing alarm about the murder. The committee called on the Indonesian leader to order a complete investigation into Syafruddin's death, as well as public disclosure of the investigation's findings.
In October, Indonesia's National Committee on Human Rights began an inquiry into Syafruddin's death, and police in Jogyakarta arrested a suspect. However, according to press reportts, Syafruddin's widow claimed that the suspect, Dwi Sumadji, was not one of the men she saw kill her husband. She says he is a foil to deflect blame from the guilty parties.
In December, the Indonesian Journalist Association (PWI) told reporters that Syafruddin was beaten to death because of his stories about corruption, and not by a jealous husband as policed alleged shortly after the attack. PWI chairman Sofyan Lubis said that evidence and testimony at the trial of the alleged killer confirmed the association's findings. The court concluded that there was insufficient evidence against Sumadji, and prosecutors dropped the charges against him. The ruling led to an investigation into the conduct of two police officers accused of forcing Sumadji to admit he killed Syafruddin because the reporter was having an affair with his wife.
Ireland: 1
Veronica Guerin, Sunday Independent, June 26, 1996, Dublin
Guerin, a crime reporter for the Sunday Independent, was shot dead by assailants on a motorcycle as she was stopped in her car at a traffic light in Dublin. She had been repeatedly targeted for physical attacks, a shooting, and death threats because of her incisive, continuing investigation into Ireland's criminal underworld that had garnered her CPJ's 1995 International Press Freedom Award.
Two men, Brian Meehan and Paul Ward, were convicted for her murder in 1999 and 1998. Ward's conviction was overturned in 2002, but he remains in prison, where he is serving a 12-year sentence for taking part in a prison riot. John Gilligan, a known Dublin drug trafficker, was also charged but was acquitted because of lack of evidence on March 16, 2001, despite the judge's assertion that there were "grave suspicions" of Gilligan's complicity in the killing.
Philippines: 1
Ferdinand Reyes, Press Freedom, February 13, 1996, Dipolog
Reyes, editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Press Freedom, was fatally shot while at his desk in his office in Dipolog, some 400 miles (640 kilometers) south of Manila. He had received death threats in the past for his frequent writings about official corruption and human rights abuses and his criticism of government policies.
Russia: 6
Felix Solovyov, free-lancer February 26, 1996, Moscow
Solovyov, a free-lance photojournalist and a contributor to the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, was fatally shot in central Moscow. Two years earlier, he had published a portfolio on Moscow mafia groups in three German newspapers. He was in Germany discussing story ideas two weeks before his death.
Viktor Pimenov, Vaynakh Television, March 11, 1996, Chechnya
Pimenov, a cameraman for Vaynakh Television, a Chechen station supported by Moscow-backed forces, was fatally shot in the back by a sniper positioned on the roof of a 16-story building in Grozny, the Chechen capital. Pimenov had been filming the devastation caused by the March 6-9 raid on the city.
Nadezhda Chaikova, Obshchaya Gazeta, March 30, 1996, Chechnya
Chaikova, a correspondent for the Russian weekly Obshchaya Gazeta who was known for her exposés of Russian military atrocities and close contacts with the Chechen rebels, was fatally shot, execution-style. Her body was discovered March 30 outside the Chechen village of Gehki. Chaikova was known to have filmed the destroyed village of Samashki, leveled in an attack by Russian federal troops. While Russian federal troops are suspected in her death, the killing may have been ordered by Chechen fighters acting on rumors spread by Russian secret police that she was a spy.
Nina Yefimova, Vozrozhdeniye, May 9, 1996, Chechnya
Yefimova, a reporter for Vozrozhdeniye, a local Russian-language newspaper in Grozny, was abducted with her mother from their apartment on May 8. Both were found dead from bullet wounds the next day in different parts of the city. Yefimova had written stories about crime in Chechnya.
Viktor Mikhailov, Zabaikalsky Rabochy, May 12, 1996, Chita
Mikhailov, a crime reporter for the daily Zabaikalsky Rabochy in southeastern Siberia, was beaten to death in broad daylight in the city center of Chita. He had been working on a series of articles about crime and the work of law enforcement agencies.
Ramzan Khadzhiev, Russian Public TV (ORT), August 11,1996, Chechnya
Khadzhiev, chief of the Northern Caucasus bureau of Russian Public Television (ORT), was fatally shot while attempting to leave Grozny by car with his wife and young son. ORT reported that Chechen rebels targeted Khadzhiev, an ethnic Chechen, because he supported the Moscow-installed government. But an unidentified passenger in their car told NTV, Russia's only independent television station, that Russian armored vehicles had opened fire on them.
Tajikistan: 1
Viktor Nikulin, Russian Public TV (ORT), March 28, 1996, Dushanbe
Nikulin, a correspondent for Russian Public Television (ORT) in Dushanbe, was fatally shot at the door to his office. He had received three threatening telephone calls a week before he was killed.
Turkey: 1
Metin Goktepe, Evrensel, January 8, 1996, Istanbul
Goktepe, a columnist for the left-leaning daily Evrensel, was beaten to death by police. He had been covering the funeral in Istanbul of two leftist inmates killed during a prison riot. His death prompted a public outcry among journalists.
After several trials, retrials, and appeals, in January 2000, an appeals court upheld seven-and-a-half-year prison sentences for five police officers involved in the killing. A sixth officer's sentence was reduced to three and a half years.
Ukraine: 1
Igor Hrushetsky, free-lancer, May 10, 1996, Cherkassy
Hrushetsky, a free-lance journalist, was found dead near his home in Cherkassy, killed by a blow to the head. He was known for his reports on political corruption published in Nezavisimost and Respublika and had testified recently in a criminal case involving the son of a high-ranking police official.
Bangladesh: 1
S.M. Alauddin, Ogrodoot, June 19, 1996, Satkhira
Alauddin, editor of the weekly Ogrodoot and a former member of Parliament for the governing Awami League in Satkhira, was fatally shot while in his office. Police attributed the murder to a political feud but did not provide details.
Guatemala: 2
Juan José Yantuche, "TV Noticias," April 11, 1996, Mixco
Yantuche, a reporter with the cable television news program "TV Noticias," was shot and lay in a coma for a week in a Mixco hospital before dying on April 11. A week after his assassination, the director of "TV Noticias," Oscar Mazaya, reported receiving anonymous death threats.
Israel Hernández Marroquín, Infopress Centroamericano, December 10, 1996, Guatemala City
Hernández Marroquín, editor of the weekly newsletter Infopress Centroamericano, was fatally shot December 10, 1996 and later found dead on the outskirts of Guatemala City.
Nigeria: 2
Baguda Kaltho, TheNEWS, March 1996, Nigeria
Kaltho, the Kaduna-based senior correspondent for TheNEWS, has been missing since early March, when he was last seen leaving the newspaper's office alone one evening. TheNEWS's management and his family have been unable to determine his whereabouts. He is presumed dead.
Chinedu Offoaro, The Guardian, May 1996, Nigeria
Offoaro, a reporter for The Guardian, has been missing since the third week in May. He failed to return to the newspaper's offices on May 26 from a reporting assignment in Owerri, Imo State. His family was unable to locate him and fear he is dead. State Security Service officials refused to cooperate with the family or to answer questions about whether they detained Offoaro.
Philippines: 1
Alberto Berbon, DZMM Radio, December 15, 1996, Manila
Berbon, senior editor for the radio station DZMM, which is owned by the Philippines' largest broadcast network, ABS-CBN, was fatally shot outside his home in a Manila suburb. His wife was also injured in the attack. Berbon headed a local journalists association and was a prominent anti-crime activist. As of February, a prosecutor had filed charges against four suspects.
Russia: 1
Oleg Slabynko, Russian Television Channel 2, January 25, 1996, Moscow
Slabynko, producer of the news programs "Moment Istiny" (Moment of Truth) and "Zabytyye Imena" (Forgotten Names) on Russian Television Channel 2 and general manager of an advertising agency, was fatally shot in the doorway of his Moscow apartment.
Uzbekistan: 1
Sergei Grebenyuk, Interfax, February 8, 1996, Tashkent
Grebenyuk, a reporter for the independent Russian news agency Interfax, was found dead on February 8 in a canal in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. The cause of death is unknown, but he was last seen on January 27. Russian correspondents working in Tashkent have often been threatened. Grebenyuk had received similar warnings and had previously been attacked.