BELARUS: 1

Dmitry Zavadsky, ORT, November 28, 2003, Minsk

Zavadsky, 29, a kidnapped cameraman with the Russian public television network ORT, was officially declared dead by a district court in the capital, Minsk. According to local press reports, the cameraman's widow, Svetlana Zavadskaya, initiated the judicial process in October 2003. Zavadsky's body was never recovered following his abduction.

The journalist was reported missing after he failed to keep a scheduled late-morning rendezvous on July 7, 2000, with his longtime colleague and friend Pavel Sheremet at the airport in Minsk.

Local media reported that Zavadsky had been seen inside the airport not long before Sheremet's flight arrived from Moscow. Zavadsky's car was later found locked and parked outside the airport building. A search for the journalist by local police and officials from the local prosecutor's office turned up no clues.

Sheremet, a former ORT bureau chief in Minsk who now heads the station's special projects department in Moscow, had recently traveled to Chechnya with Zavadsky to shoot "The Chechen Diary," a four-part documentary about the war there. CPJ sources in Belarus suspect that Zavadsky was abducted because he had footage that showed Belarusian security agents fighting alongside Chechen rebel forces.

Sheremet and Zavadsky's wife told reporters that shortly after Zavadsky returned from Chechnya, he began receiving phone calls from an unknown man who insisted on a meeting.

Zavadsky was President Aleksandr Lukashenko's personal cameraman until 1996. During the summer of 1997, local police detained Sheremet and Zavadsky while they were filming a documentary about smuggling between Belarus and Lithuania. They later received a suspended sentence for alleged illegal border crossing.

Sheremet has repeatedly accused Belarusian intelligence agents of being involved in Zavadsky's disappearance. Although investigators have publicly rejected this theory, Sheremet claims they do not rule it out in private. The Belarusian prosecutor's office has "cautiously hinted that former agents of the Belarus secret services, along with some of their Russian counterparts, might have been involved," Sheremet told the local news agency BelaPAN.

Senior Belarus officials, including Acting Interior Minister Mikhail Udovikov, have hinted that Zavadsky's disappearance may have resulted from his pro-Russian coverage of the war in Chechnya. They have also suggested that the journalist was kidnapped, either by his ORT colleagues, including Sheremet, or by members of the local opposition.

In addition to the threatening phone calls Zavadsky had received before his disappearance, two men were spotted trailing the journalist near his apartment building on the day he disappeared, Zavadsky's neighbors told police. The police commissioned artist sketches of the alleged stalkers but refused to release them. In early August 2000, police also collected samples of Zavadsky's hair from his family for testing without explaining the purpose of the tests.

Later that month, police classified Zavadsky's disappearance as a premeditated crime and announced they had identified five suspects. The primary suspect, a leader of the Belarusian branch of the ultraright Russian National Unity movement named Valery Ignatovich, was in prison by the end of 2000. Police ruled out the theory that Belarusian security agents had been involved in the crime.

On November 20, 2000, local independent media had received an unsigned e-mail from a person who identified himself as an officer of the Belarus State Security Committee involved in the Zavadsky investigation. The writer claimed that nine suspects had been arrested, seven of whom were either current or former officers of the Presidential Security Service, and that the suspects had confessed to killing Zavadsky and had named the place where his body was buried. According to the e-mail, the investigators had also found a shovel stained with Zavadsky's blood.

Additionally, the e-mail claimed that President Lukashenko refused to allow investigators to exhume the body, and that the case was later transferred from the Prosecutor's Office to the Interior Ministry to sabotage the investigation.

The next day, the Belarusian State Security Council denounced the allegations, while Lukashenko blamed Zavadsky's disappearance on Chechen kidnappers. At the same time, Sheremet told BelaPAN he believed that the information from the anonymous e-mailer might be trustworthy, while local sources told CPJ that they had received similar information from other anonymous sources close to the investigation.

A week after the e-mail was made public, Lukashenko fired four senior aides: his adviser on security issues, the chairman of the Security Council, the prosecutor general, and the head of the State Security Committee. Lukashenko claimed that the four men had been plotting a coup and had abducted Zavadsky in an effort to compromise the president.

Interior Minister Vladimir Naumov promised to resolve the case no later than January 2001. Local observers questioned the integrity of the investigation, however, given that Naumov once headed the special police unit, Almaz, some of whose members were suspected of being involved in the crime.

On March 14, 2002, two former Almaz members, Valery Ignatovich and Maxim Malik, were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for abducting Zavadsky. Prosecutors argued that Ignatovich and Malik kidnapped the journalist in reprisal for an interview he had given to the Minsk-based Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta during which he alleged that certain unnamed Belarusians had fought with Chechen rebels against Russian forces.

The trial was held behind closed doors in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Journalists were only allowed into the courtroom for the reading of the sentence.

Zavadsky's lawyer and family said the trial failed to examine credible allegations that Belarusian authorities were also involved in the abduction. Sergei Tsurko, a lawyer for Zavadsky's family, claims that Ignatovich and Malik are scapegoats and that real responsibility lies with the Belarusian government.

On March 25, 2002, the missing cameraman's relatives filed a petition with the Belarusian Supreme Court, claiming that prosecutors had not sufficiently proven that Ignatovich and Malik were responsible for kidnapping Zavadsky. The petition urged further investigation into Zavadsky's abduction and his subsequent fate.

In June 2002, two former employees of the Prosecutor General's Office, Dmitry Petrushkevich and Oleg Sluchek, who had alleged that President Lukashenko had derailed the investigation because of evidence linking a government-led death squad to Zavadsky's murder, were granted asylum in the United States.

Zavadsky's colleague Pavel Sheremet and local opposition groups have supported these claims.

The U.S. State Department has also publicly validated Petrushkevich and Sluchek's claims. "We think these revelations are important," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said at a June 19, 2002, press briefing.

Two weeks later, on July 3, 2002, Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky and other U.S. officials met with Petrushkevich and Sluchek to discuss Zavadsky's disappearance and several other cases in which Belarusian individuals were allegedly murdered for political reasons, Agence France-Presse reported.

On November 28, 2003, a district court in Minsk declared Zavadsky officially dead. Judge Nataliya Andreyeva spent several hours examining evidence presented by the Public Prosecutor's Office that the ORT cameraman had died after his abduction and then officially changed Zavadsky's status from missing to dead.

"This was done for property-related reasons so that my apartment can be registered in my name," Zavadskaya told CPJ. "I still want to find out the truth about my husband and what happened to him."

The Public Prosecutor's Office ended its investigation into the Zavadsky case in January 2003, claiming they had pursued all available leads in the cameraman's disappearance.

On December 10, 2003, prosecutors announced they had reopened the investigation about 48 hours before the Council of Europe, a pan-Europe human rights monitoring organization, released a report alleging that high-level government officials were involved in the journalist's disappearance and its subsequent cover-up.

However, Ivan Branchel, deputy head of the prosecutor's Organized Crime and Corruption Department, sent a letter to Zavadskaya in early April 2004 informing her that the case was closed on March 31, 2004, said the Minsk-based human rights group Charter 97.

Authorities have refused to give Zavadskaya information about the investigation, which relatives of victims are authorized to obtain under Belarus law, said Zavadskaya.

BRAZIL: 2

Nicanor Linhares Batista, Rádio Vale do Jaguaribe, June 30, 2003, Limoeiro do Norte

Nicanor, radio host and owner of Rádio Vale do Jaguaribe, based in the city of Limoeiro do Norte, in the northeastern state of Ceará, was killed by at least two unidentified gunmen at around 8 p.m. while he was recording his daily show "Encontro Político" (Political Encounter) at his station's studios.

According to the daily Diário do Nordeste, which is based in Fortaleza, the capital of Ceará State, a sound operator who witnessed the murder said the gunmen came into the studio, shot Nicanor several times at close range, and fled on a motorcycle. Nicanor was taken to Limoeiro do Norte's public hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.

The Fortaleza daily O Povo reported that "Encontro Político," broadcast on weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., was one of the most popular radio shows in the region. According to O Povo, Nicanor was considered a controversial journalist whose hard-hitting commentaries had angered many local politicians and public officials.

Ceará State parliamentary deputy Paulo Duarte was quoted in Diário do Nordeste as saying that he had heard about a plot to kill Nicanor, and that the journalist had received threats. According to Duarte, Nicanor had scheduled a July 1 meeting with him and another state government official to discuss his safety.

Several members of Nicanor's family who gave testimony to the police believe that he was killed for his journalism, O Povo reported. The journalist's wife told Diário do Nordeste that Nicanor had received threats before he bought the radio station in 2001 but had not received any recently.

According to the news agency Agência Nordeste, police said that Nicanor's murder may have been a contract killing, and that the journalist had many enemies because of the critical reports that aired on his station.

In October, the Ceará State Public Prosecutor's Office identified a judge from the neighboring state of Pernambuco and his wife, Limoeiro do Norte's mayor, as the people who ordered Nicanor's murder. Under Brazilian law, federal and state prosecutors—not local prosecutors—deal with criminal cases against public officials, and they have yet to bring formal charges against the suspects.

Luiz Antônio da Costa, Época, July 23, 2003, São Bernardo do Campo

Da Costa, a photographer with the weekly Época, was killed while on assignment in the city of São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo State.

The 36-year-old photographer, who was known professionally as La Costa, and Época reporter Alexandre Mansur were covering the occupation by homeless families of an empty lot belonging to a Volkswagen auto factory in São Bernardo do Campo. The homeless families, who numbered in the thousands and had been organized by the Movement of Homeless Workers (MTST), had been camping at the site since July 19 to demand housing and jobs from the state and federal governments.

At around 3 p.m., while MTST leaders were talking to the journalists, three men who had just robbed a nearby gas station entered the campsite brandishing handguns. One of them shot da Costa in the chest at close range. The journalist was then taken to the São Bernardo Municipal Hospital but died shortly after.

Based on eyewitness testimony and several pictures taken at the scene of the shooting by photographer André Porto, of the newspaper Agora São Paulo, police were able to identify da Costa's suspected attackers, two of whom were captured on July 30.

The same day, police announced that one of the suspects had confessed to shooting da Costa accidentally while aiming at his camera, Época reported. The suspect also told police that the three men thought da Costa had taken pictures of the robbery at the gas station. The police believe that da Costa was targeted deliberately, according to Época.

Época is owned by Editora Globo S.A., part of the giant media group Organizações Globo.

CAMBODIA: 1

Chou Chetharith, Ta Prum, October 18, 2003, Phnom Penh

Chetharith, a deputy editor of the royalist FUNCINPEC party's Ta Prum radio station, was killed by a gunman riding on the back of a motorcycle while the journalist was on his way to work in the capital, Phnom Penh.

According to witnesses interviewed by Agence France-Presse, Chetharith, 37, was shot in the head at point-blank range in broad daylight. Local sources tell CPJ that Ta Prum is known for its critical reporting of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, and that the station's director, Noranarith Anandayath, is an adviser to FUNCINPEC party chief Prince Norodom Ranaridhh.

The day before the shooting, the prime minister criticized Ta Prum in the English-language Cambodia Times, accusing the station of insulting his leadership.

Chetharith's murder came ahead of scheduled three-way talks between the FUNCINPEC party, the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, and the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP). The talks were canceled after the journalist's killing. They had been aimed at ending a political stalemate following the July 27 elections, when Hun Sen and his CPP failed to garner a two-thirds majority of the vote. By law, the CPP was required to form a coalition with opposition parties but refused to do so.

In early December, Police Commissioner Heng Pov told the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) that although police have identified possible suspects in Chetarith's murder, they do not have enough evidence to make any arrests. The CCHR conducted an in-depth investigation into the killing and concluded that Chetarith was killed because of his work as a journalist.

COLOMBIA: 4

Luis Eduardo Alfonso Parada, Radio Meridiano-70, March 18, 2003, Arauca

Alfonso, a 33-year-old radio news host, was shot to death at 4:55 a.m. by two gunmen in the town of Arauca, near the Venezuelan border, while he tried to enter his office at Radio Meridiano-70. Two men were waiting for him there and fled on a motorcycle after the attack, said an Arauca Department police spokesperson.

The journalist, who had been threatened previously by members of a right-wing paramilitary army, was also a freelance reporter for Colombia's most widely read daily, El Tiempo.

In June 2002, presumed paramilitary gunmen shot and killed the owner of Radio Meridiano-70, Efraín Varela Noriega. Varela had alerted listeners to the presence of paramilitary fighters in the region days before he was assassinated.

Alfonso co-hosted several news shows broadcast during the day. Since October, he had been covering armed conflict in Arauca Department as a freelance reporter for El Tiempo, said Álvaro Sierra, an editor at the daily. The conflict, which pits leftist rebels against rival paramilitary combatants and the government, is almost 40 years old.

Alfonso lambasted all sides of the conflict but was particularly critical of the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), said Miguel Ángel Rojas, who worked with Alfonso at Radio Meridiano-70. Rojas said Alfonso frequently reported in great detail on paramilitary activity in the region. "He didn't hold back at all," said Rojas. "I think that's what compromised him."

Fearing for his life, Alfonso fled for the capital, Bogotá, soon after Varela was killed, said Jorge Enrique Meléndez, an El Tiempo reporter and a friend of Alfonso's who spoke to him hours before he was killed.

In Bogotá, Alfonso received about US$320 from a government protection program for journalists to help support him while he sought refuge. Alfonso returned to Arauca six weeks later.

In November 2002, Alfonso's name was one of about 100 that appeared on a list distributed in the town of Arauca by paramilitary fighters, who threatened to kill the people on the list unless they "reformed," said Meléndez. In the weeks before his death, however, Alfonso had told friends and colleagues that he no longer feared for his life.

Guillermo Bravo Vega, Alpevisión Radio, April 28, 2003, Neiva

Bravo, a 65-year-old investigative journalist with the regional Alpevisión Radio, was shot dead at around 8 p.m. by an unidentified gunman who sneaked into his house in the southern town of Neiva, Huila Department. Bravo died while he was being driven to a local hospital, state police chief Col. Jairo Rolando Delgado said.

The journalist was shot once in the head and twice in the neck. The gunman escaped on the back of a motorcycle driven by another unknown individual. As of December, authorities had not made any arrests in the case, according to Delgado.

Bravo, who directed the morning television program "Hechos y cifras" (Facts and Figures) for Alpevisión, had frequently accused municipal and departmental government officials of mishandling public funds. Bravo also published an occasional newsletter focused on economics and finance called Eco Impacto (Eco Impact).

Authorities, who believe that Bravo may have been assassinated for denouncing public officials on his program, are investigating reports that he was killed by a professional assassin hired by government officials, said Pedro Moreno, director of intelligence for the Administrative Department for Security in Huila. Moreno declined to give more details.

According to a friend of Bravo's, two weeks before he was killed, a man approached the journalist at his house and warned him to leave town. The man told Bravo that he had been paid 2 million Colombian pesos (US$700) to kill him. Authorities have not been able to confirm the report.

Known for his investigative reporting, Bravo won Colombia's Simón Bolívar National Journalism Award in 1979. Ricardo Areiza, editor-in-chief of the Neiva-based daily Diario del Huila, said that Bravo had received death threats a month before his murder. "He said that he was going to be killed, and I believe that his assassination is related to his work," Areiza added.

Bravo was also well known as a left-leaning politician. He served as a departmental lawmaker in Huila for more than two decades ago and was recently a candidate for mayor of Neiva, according to a report published on April 30 in El Tiempo, Colombia's leading daily.

Jaime Rengifo Revero, Olímpica Radio, April 29, 2003, Maicao

Rengifo, a 48-year-old host for Radio Olímpica, was shot dead at around 6 a.m. by an unidentified gunman in the hallway of a hotel where the journalist lived in the northern town of Maicao, La Guajira Department, authorities reported.

The journalist was shot five times in the back while he was walking to his room at Hotel Venecia after drinking a cup of coffee in the lobby. The gunman, who had checked into the hotel under a false name the day before, fled on a motorcycle, said state police chief Col. Heriberto Naranjo.

As of December, authorities had not made any arrests, Naranjo told CPJ. Officials continue to investigate reports that Rengifo was killed for comments made during his weekly morning program on Radio Olímpica, "Periodistas en acción" (Journalists in action).

Rengifo frequently criticized state security forces for failing to bring security to the region and also accused local politicians of corruption, said James Vargas, the station's production director. Leftist guerrillas and rival right-wing paramilitary forces fighting in the country's decades-long civil conflict all operate in the lawless region.

Vargas said Rengifo had received death threats in the past. A month before the journalist was killed, someone scrawled the message "Death to Jaime Rengifo" on the side of a building in Maicao. Rengifo was also the publisher of an infrequently published newspaper called El Guajiro Quincenario.

Juan Carlos Benavides Arévalo, Manantial Estéreo, August 22, 2003, Puerto Caicedo

Benavides, a 29-year-old host for the community radio station Manantial Estéreo, was shot dead when the vehicle in which he was traveling was fired on at a checkpoint reportedly guarded by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) near the town of Puerto Caicedo, in southern Colombia.

Benavides died at about 6:15 p.m., after being shot when his driver decided to elude the checkpoint. The journalist hosted the morning radio program "Panorama Informativo" (News Outlook) on Manantial Estéreo, which is run by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Putumayo Department, in the town of Sibundoy.

Also in the car was Jaime Conrado Juajibioy Cuarán, 24, who worked on Benavides' program. Juajibioy was seriously injured in the attack and was taken to a hospital for treatment, according to CPJ sources.

According to local press reports, the rebels who shot at the vehicle were FARC members. However, government forces, right-wing paramilitary militias, and drug lords—in addition to the FARC—are also known to control checkpoints in the region.

On September 3, the Colombian military reported that two FARC rebels who had allegedly shot Benavides were killed in a confrontation with the army. Army officials said the rebels had set up a checkpoint in the area where the journalist was killed, the Bogotá-based daily El Espectador reported.

Benavides and Juajibioy were traveling with a group including local politicians from Sibundoy to the town of Puerto Asís, where they had planned to cover a meeting between Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and regional leaders. At the meeting, Uribe said that FARC rebels had been trying to attack him during his visit there, The Associated Press reported.

GUATEMALA: 1

Héctor Ramírez, Noti7 and Radio Sonora, July 24, 2003, Guatemala City

Ramírez, a reporter for Guatemala's Noti 7 television station and Radio Sonora, died from a heart attack after fleeing from attackers who were beating him while he was covering protests in the capital, Guatemala City, according to autopsy results.

On July 24, riots erupted across Guatemala City after the Supreme Court's July 20 decision granting two opposition parties an injunction temporarily barring former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt from running for president in the November 9 elections. A later ruling allowed Ríos Montt to run in the poll, which he lost.

Supporters of Ríos Montt's political party, the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), attacked other journalists in different areas of the capital, sources told CPJ. "It was crazy, the mob was completely out of control," Haroldo Sánchez, news director for Guatevisión television station, told CPJ. According to CPJ sources, government authorities and the National Police did little to control the protesters.

In August, Ramírez's family filed a criminal complaint against President Alfonso Portillo Cabrera, several government ministers, Ríos Montt, and high-ranking FRG officials, accusing them of being responsible for the journalist's death.

In an October meeting with a CPJ delegation, Marco Antonio Cortez, the Attorney General Office's special prosecutor for crimes against journalists and trade unionists, told CPJ that he had asked the Supreme Court to initiate preliminary proceedings (antejuicios) against President Portillo, Ríos Montt, and other high-ranking government officials to determine if their immunity can be lifted so they can be tried as private citizens. As of December, the proceedings had not yet begun.

INDIA: 1

Parvaz Mohammed Sultan, News and Feature Alliance, January 31, 2003, Srinagar

Sultan, editor of the independent newswire service News and Feature Alliance (NAFA), which is based in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir State, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman.

Two men entered Sultan's office at around 5:30 p.m., according to news reports. After a brief conversation with Sultan, one of the men shot him in the head. The Associated Press (AP) reported that the killer used a pistol with a silencer. No one stopped the assailants from leaving the premises, which is located in the press enclave in central Srinagar.

Though Sultan was rushed to the hospital, doctors declared the journalist dead within minutes of his arrival, police told the AP.

Sultan, 36, was known as an independent journalist who had worked for several local Urdu-language dailies during his career. In addition to running NAFA, he contributed investigative stories and columns to the Urdu-language newspaper Chattan, one of the oldest newspapers in Kashmir.

Journalists working in the disputed territory of Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim, have long been vulnerable to attack by various parties to the conflict. Sultan's colleagues told CPJ that though they were not aware of any specific threats against the journalist, wire service agencies such as NAFA are under constant pressure to carry statements issued by competing political and militant groups.

Police blamed the murder on militant groups but have not yet conducted a thorough investigation. No group claimed responsibility for Sultan's murder, and many of the leading militant organizations, including Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, condemned the murder, as did the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, the main separatist alliance.

INDONESIA: 1

Ersa Siregar, Rajawali Citra Televisi, December 29, 2003, Aceh

Siregar, a senior reporter with private Indonesian channel Rajawali Citra Televisi (RCTI), was shot and killed during a gun battle between Indonesian military forces and separatist rebels in the war-torn Aceh Province, according to RCTI chief editor Derek Manangka. Aceh military spokesman Lt. Col. Firdaus Komarno told Agence France-Presse that the firefight broke out when Indonesian soldiers came across a group of rebels in the area. Siregar's body and the body of a rebel fighter were found later.

According to news reports, the rebels accused the military of executing Siregar. In response, the military has claimed that the rebels were using the journalist as a human shield.

Siregar, 52, was kidnapped on June 29 by rebels from the Free Aceh Movement, known by its Indonesian acronym GAM, along with cameraman Fery Santoro, their driver, and two Indonesian officers' wives who were sharing a ride with the journalists to the town of Lhokseumawe in northern Aceh. The RCTI crew had been reporting on the military offensive in Aceh, which was launched on May 19 to crush the long-running rebel insurgency. On July 3, a spokesman for the rebels announced that the group was being held on suspicion of working for the Indonesian military (TNI).

GAM later dropped that accusation, but various attempts to secure the release of the hostages during the last six months have failed. On July 6, TNI Cmdr. Gen. Endriartono Sutarto set a deadline of July 8 for GAM to release the hostages or else face military attack. That same day, Imam Wahyudi, an editor at RCTI, and nine other journalists were allowed to meet with Siregar and reported that Siregar and Santoro were in good health. After GAM failed to meet the July 8 deadline, military officials questioned Wahyudi and the other journalists who had met with Siregar about how they were able to contact GAM and locate their base.

Further negotiations between the military and the rebels stalled over the rebels' demands for a seven-day ceasefire and that the military not be involved in the transfer of the hostages. TNI rejected the demands and proposed instead the creation of a battle-free zone where the hostages could be transferred from GAM control. Meanwhile, on October 4, the Jakarta Post reported that Siregar was suffering from deteriorating health, including coughing up blood.

On November 5, Indonesian security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the military to start an operation to locate the hostages, accusing GAM of being "a terror group which takes reporters and innocent civilians hostage."

On December 19, the driver was released unharmed.

The two wives were released in February 2004. On May 16, Santoro was released and handed over to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

IRAN: 1

Zahra Kazemi, freelance, July 10, 2003, Tehran

Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian freelance photographer, died in Tehran's Baghiatollah Hospital after being transferred from government custody. Kazemi, a contributor to the Montreal-based magazine Recto Verso and the London-based photo agency Camera Press, was detained on June 23 while taking photographs of the families of detainees outside Tehran's Evin Prison. She was held for nearly two weeks before being transferred to the hospital in a coma.

During subsequent weeks, officials tried to cover up the circumstances of Kazemi's death. Initially, Iranian officials maintained that the journalist had died of a stroke, and that she had complained of poor health while she was detained. On July 16, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi announced that Kazemi had died from a "brain hemorrhage resulting from beatings." Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi later backed away from the statement, saying the journalist may have died from an "accident." A government inquiry released in late July 2003 concluded that Kazemi died as a result of a skull fracture likely caused by a blow to her head.

Authorities prevented an autopsy by burying Kazemi's body in Iran against the wishes of her family in Canada. The Canadian government responded by withdrawing its ambassador to Tehran. In the ensuing months, several agents from the Intelligence Ministry were arrested in connection with Kazemi's death.

A parliamentary commission report released in November 2003 said that members of the Iranian judiciary had been holding Kazemi in custody when she was beaten, making it unlikely, according to journalists and reformist politicians, that those responsible for her death will be brought to justice.

On July 24, 2004, an Iranian court acquitted intelligence agent Mohamed Reza Aqdam Ahmadi of the "semi-intentional murder" of Kazemi. The court cited insufficient evidence.

The trial, which began on July 17, was abruptly ended the following day. Kazemi's legal team, headed by Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, accused the court of refusing to hear witness testimony and to consider evidence accusing another prison official of delivering the fatal blow that killed Kazemi.

Ebadi said she would appeal the verdict in Iranian courts, but that if justice is denied, they will have no choice but to take the case "to international courts and the United Nations."


IRAQ: 14

Terry Lloyd, ITV News, March 22, 2003, near Al-Zubayr

Lloyd, a veteran correspondent with ITV News, was confirmed dead on March 23 by the British TV network ITN, which produces ITV News. The previous day, he had disappeared after coming under fire while driving to the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Two others disappeared with Lloyd, cameraman Fred Nerac and translator Hussein Othman. They remain missing.

The three men, along with cameraman Daniel Demoustier, were traveling in two marked press vehicles in the town of Iman Anas, near Al-Zubayr, when they came under fire, ITN reported. According to Demoustier, the car he and Lloyd had been driving had been pursued by Iraqi troops who may have been attempting to surrender to the journalists. Demoustier reported that the incoming fire to their vehicles likely came from U.S. or British forces in the area.

Demoustier, who was injured when the car he was driving crashed into a ditch and caught fire, managed to escape. He said he did not see what happened to Lloyd, who was seated next to him, or to the other crew members. Lloyd's body was recovered in a hospital in Basra days later.

An investigative article published in The Wall Street Journal in May indicated that Lloyd's SUV and another vehicle belonging to his colleagues came under fire from U.S. Marines. The article cited accounts from U.S. troops who recalled opening fire on cars marked "TV." Soldiers also said they believed that Iraqi suicide bombers were using the cars to attack U.S. troops.

The Journal article cited a report from a British security firm commissioned by ITN to investigate the incident saying that Lloyd's car was hit by both coalition and Iraqi fire;the latter most likely came from behind the car, possibly after the vehicle had crashed.

The report concluded that "[t]he Iraqis no doubt mounted an attack using the ITN crew as cover, or perhaps stumbled into the U.S. forces whilst attempting to detain the ITN crew." The report also speculated that the missing men—Nerac and Othman, who were last seen by Demoustier in another car being stopped by Iraqi forces—might have been pulled out of their car before it came under fire from coalition forces, and then Iraqi forces used the SUV to attack the coalition forces.

In April, Nerac's wife approached U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell at a NATO press conference, and he promised to do everything in his power to find out what had happened to the missing men. In late May, Centcom said that it was investigating the incident, while the British Ministry of Defense promised to open an inquiry. Neither had made public any results as of October.

In September, London's The Daily Mirror newspaper reported the testimony of an Iraqi man named Hamid Aglan who had allegedly tried to rescue the wounded Lloyd in a civilian minibus. Aglan told the newspaper that he had picked up a lightly wounded Lloyd, who had suffered only a shoulder injury, and attempted to take him to a hospital in Basra when the minibus came under fire from a U.S. helicopter, killing Lloyd. The paper reported that the bus was also carrying wounded Iraqi soldiers.

An ITN spokesperson told CPJ that a number of elements of Aglan's story are not consistent with ITN's own investigation. She said an autopsy revealed that Lloyd had suffered two serious wounds that likely resulted from Iraqi and U.S. fire. She said that after he was wounded, an Iraqi civilian in a minibus had picked up Lloyd and tried to take him to a hospital in Basra. The minibus later came under U.S. attack. "It was a gunshot to the bus and [Terry] was probably in the bus," she said. ITN investigators believe that either wound that Lloyd sustained would have been fatal.

Paul Moran, freelance, March 22, 2003, Gerdigo

Moran, a free-lance cameraman on assignment for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), was killed in a suicide bombing when a man detonated a car at a checkpoint in northeastern Iraq. Another Australian journalist, ABC correspondent Eric Campbell, was injured in the incident.

Michael Ware, Time magazine's northern Iraq correspondent and a witness to the incident, told his editor, Howard Chua-Eoan, that several foreign journalists were standing outside a checkpoint on the edge of Gerdigo, a town in northern Iraq near Halabja, interviewing people who were leaving the town in the wake of a U.S. cruise missile bombardment that began on March 21 and continued until the next day.

U.S. missiles were targeting strongholds of Ansar al-Islam, a militant group that the United States designates as a terrorist organization. The area where the journalists were conducting interviews was reportedly under the control of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a rival of Ansar al-Islam that had just taken over the area.

At around 3 p.m., a taxi drove to the checkpoint near PUK soldiers and Moran, and the driver then detonated his vehicle. Most of the other journalists had just left the scene. Moran, who was filming at the time, was standing only a few feet from the checkpoint and was killed immediately. Campbell was injured by shrapnel.

Chua-Eoan said it appeared that the bomber was targeting the PUK soldiers, not the journalists. According to The Associated Press, at least four other people were killed in the bombing. Militants from Ansar al-Islam are believed to be responsible for the attack.

Chua-Eoan told CPJ that foreign journalists in northern Iraq had recently received warnings from U.S. State Department and Kurdish intelligence officials that Ansar al-Islam may target members of the media, as well as the hotel where most journalists are staying, the Sulaymaniyeh Palace.

Kaveh Golestan, freelance, April 2, 2003, Kifri

Golestan, an Iranian freelance cameraman on assignment for the BBC, was killed in northern Iraq after stepping on a land mine, the BBC confirmed.

Golestan accidentally detonated the mine when he exited his car near the town of Kifri, John Morrissey of the BBC's foreign desk told CPJ. The cameraman was traveling as part of a four-person BBC crew that included Tehran, Iran, bureau chief Jim Muir, producer Stuart Hughes, and translator Rabeen Azad. Hughes' foot was injured and later treated by U.S. military medics. Muir and the translator suffered light cuts, Morrissey said.

Golestan, who was also a well-known still photographer, had worked frequently with the BBC out of its Tehran bureau.

Michael Kelly, Atlantic Monthly and The Washington Post, April 3, 2003, outside of Baghdad

Kelly, editor-at-large of the Atlantic Monthly and a columnist with The Washington Post, was killed while traveling with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division just south of the Baghdad airport, according to a statement from The Washington Post.

According to press reports, when the humvee in which Kelly was riding came under Iraqi fire, the soldier driving the vehicle tried to evade the attack, and the jeep ran off the road and rolled into a canal. Both Kelly and the driver drowned.

Kelly, who had previously served as the editor of The New Republic and the National Journal, was the first U.S. journalist killed while covering the war.

Christian Liebig, Focus, April 7, 2003, outside Baghdad

Liebig, a reporter for the German weekly magazine Focus, died in an Iraqi missile attack while accompanying the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division south of the capital, Baghdad. Both Liebig and Julio Anguita Parrado, a Spanish journalist also killed in the incident, were embedded with the division, according to Agence France-Presse.

According to Focus editor-in-chief Helmut Markwort, the two men had decided not to travel with the unit to Baghdad, believing they would be safer at the base. Two U.S. soldiers were also killed during the attack, and 15 were injured.

Liebig, 35, had worked for Focus since 1999.

Julio Anguita Parrado, El Mundo, April 7, 2003, outside Baghdad

Parrado, a correspondent for the Spanish daily El Mundo, died in an Iraqi missile attack while accompanying the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division south of the capital, Baghdad. Both Parrado and Christian Liebig, a German journalist for Focus magazine who was also killed in the incident, were embedded with the division, according to Agence France-Presse.

According to Focus editor-in-chief Helmut Markwort, the two men had decided not to travel with the unit to Baghdad, believing they would be safer at the base. Two U.S. soldiers were also killed during the attack, and 15 were injured. Parrado was the second El Mundo correspondent to have been killed in conflict in almost two years: Correspondent Julio Fuentes died after gunmen ambushed his convoy in Afghanistan in 2001.

Tareq Ayyoub, Al-Jazeera, April 8, 2003, Baghdad

Ayyoub, a Jordanian national working with the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera, was killed when a U.S. missile struck the station's Baghdad bureau, which was located in a two-story villa in a residential area near the Iraqi Information Ministry and the former presidential palace compound of Saddam Hussein. Al-Jazeera cameraman Zouhair Nadhim, who was outside on the building's roof with Ayyoub, was injured in the blast, which targeted a small electric generator outside the building.

Centcom maintains that U.S. forces were responding to enemy fire in the area and that the Al-Jazeera journalists were caught in the crossfire. Al-Jazeera correspondents deny that any fire came from their building.

The attack occurred during heavy fighting around the bureau in an area that housed government buildings targeted by U.S. and coalition forces. Al-Jazeera officials pointed out that the U.S. military had been given the bureau's exact coordinates weeks before the war began.

In an April 8 letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, CPJ protested the bombing and called for an immediate investigation. In October, a Centcom spokesman confirmed to CPJ that no investigation into the incident has been conducted.

The incident occurred around dawn, after intense anti-aircraft fire began in the area. Talk show host and producer Maher Abdullah, a five-year Al-Jazeera veteran who had been in Baghdad for two weeks at the time, told CPJ that planes began flying low in the area at around 6 a.m.

The crew went up to the roof of the building to report but retreated because they deemed it unsafe. According to Abdullah, the crew realized moments later that their still camera had been knocked out of position and now faced the Ministry of Information building, which Iraqi authorities had explicitly warned the crew not to film. Assistant cameraman Zoheir Nadhim returned to the roof with Ayyoub to adjust the camera.

When Ayyoub and Nadhim went up stairs, Abdullah heard a plane fly so low it that sounded like it was going to crash into the building. At that point, a missile struck Al-Jazeera's small generator, which was located outside the building at ground level just below where Ayyoub was believed to have been at the time. Two Al-Jazeera correspondents said that while they suspect that the strike caused his death, he could have been killed by other ordnance.

Another plane passed low about 15 minutes later and fired another missile, which struck across the road about 50 feet (15 meters) from the front door, blowing it off the hinges, according to Abdullah.

Raed Khattar, a cameraman for Abu Dhabi TV who, at the time, was outside on the nearby roof of Abu Dhabi TV's office, saw what was likely the first missile because his office was between the plane and Al-Jazeera's office, he told CPJ.

Moments later, Abu Dhabi TV staff on the roof came under machine gun fire from a U.S. tank on the nearby Jumhuriyya Bridge, and one of their three unmanned cameras was struck by a shell, staff told CPJ. The three-story building was marked with a large banner labeled "Abu Dhabi TV."

In a statement issued hours after the incident, Centcom in Doha, Qatar, said that, "According to commanders on the ground, Coalition forces came under significant enemy fire from the building where the Al-Jazeera journalists were working and consistent with the right of self-defense, Coalition forces returned fire. Sadly an Al-Jazeera correspondent was killed in this exchange."

Abdullah noted that until that morning anti-aircraft fire in the area had been sporadic. Days before April 8, Abdullah saw manned Iraqi anti-aircraft positions in the general vicinity—some 220 yards (200 meters) away on the opposite side of the generator, but not immediately near the office. However, on April 11, he discovered one abandoned anti-aircraft gun about 44 yards (40 meters) away from the bureau. Journalists from Abu Dhabi TV told CPJ that Al-Jazeera's bureau was located near a villa used by former Iraqi Information Minister Muhammad Said Sahhaf.

Just before the war, CPJ obtained a copy of the February 24, 2003, letter that then Al-Jazeera Managing Director Mohammed Jasem al-Ali had sent to the Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke specifying the coordinates of the bureau.

Al-Jazeera also maintains that the night before the strike, al-Ali had received explicit assurances from U.S. State Department official Nabeel Khoury in Doha, Qatar, that the bureau was safe and would not be targeted. Abdullah told CPJ, "The coordinates were actually given four months in advance to the Pentagon, and we were assured that we would not be hit under any circumstances. ... We would never be targeted, that was the assurance."

In an e-mail reply to CPJ, Khoury, who said he did not recall the exact date of his meeting with Al-Jazeera, said, "I doubt very much that I assured anybody's safety in a war zone." He added that he did tell the station "what we had been telling all diplomats and civilians, that whereas our troops would do their utmost not to hurt civilians, there was no way to guarantee anyone's safety in a war zone."

In its April 8 letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld CPJ also noted that, "The attack against Al-Jazeera is of particular concern since the stations' offices were also hit in Kabul, Afghanistan, in November 2001. The Pentagon asserted, without providing additional detail, that the office was a ‘known Al-Qaeda facility,' and that the U.S. military did not know the space was being used by Al-Jazeera."

CPJ is still waiting for the Defense Department to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act request related to the incident that CPJ filed in May.

José Couso, Telecinco, April 8, 2003, Baghdad

Couso, a cameraman for the Spanish television station Telecinco, died after a U.S. tank fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq's capital, where most journalists in the city were based during the war. At around 12 p.m., a shell hit two hotel balconies where several journalists were monitoring a battle in the vicinity. Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian cameraman for Reuters, was also killed in the attack

Agence France-Presse reported that Couso was hit in his jaw and right leg. He was taken to Saint Raphael Hospital, where he died during surgery. Couso was married with two children.

Directly after the attack, Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, commander of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, confirmed that a single shell had been fired at the hotel from a tank in response to what he said was rocket and small arms fire from the building. Journalists at the hotel deny that any gunfire had emanated from the building.

A CPJ report concluded that the shelling of the hotel, while not deliberate, was avoidable since U.S. commanders knew that journalists were present in the hotel and were intent on not hitting it. The report called on the Pentagon to conduct a thorough and public investigation into the incident.

On August 12, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) issued a news release summarizing the results of its investigation into the incident. The report concluded that the tank unit that opened fire on the hotel did so "in a proportionate and justifiably measured response." It called the shelling "fully in accordance with the Rules of Engagement."

Centcom offered some detail—consistent with CPJ's investigation—that the tank opened fire at what it believed was an Iraqi "spotter" directing enemy fire at U.S. troops. The release also explained that "one 120mm tank round was fired at the suspected enemy observer position. ... It was only some time after the incident that A Company became aware of the fact that the building they fired on was the Palestine Hotel and that journalists at the hotel had been killed or injured as a result."

However, the news release failed to address one of the conclusions in CPJ's report: That U.S. commanders knew that journalists were in the Palestine Hotel but failed to convey this knowledge to forces on the ground.

Centcom's results, which were summarized in the release, appeared to back away from earlier charges by U.S. military officials that the tank unit was responding to hostile fire emanating from the hotel. Yet, despite considerable testimony to the contrary from several journalists in the hotel, Centcom maintains "that the enemy used portions of the hotel as a base of operations and that heavy enemy activity was occurring in those areas in and immediately around the hotel."

In addition, the news release failed to provide other specific information, such as how the decision to target the hotel was made.

CPJ has urged Centcom to make the full report available, but a Centcom spokesperson told CPJ the report is classified. CPJ is still waiting for the Defense Department to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act request related to the incident that CPJ filed in May.

Taras Protsyuk, Reuters, April 8, 2003, Baghdad

Protsyuk, a cameraman for Reuters, died after a U.S. tank fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq's capital, where most journalists in the city were based during the war. At around 12 p.m., a shell hit two hotel balconies where several journalists were monitoring a battle in the vicinity. José Couso, a cameraman for the Spanish television station Telecinco, also died in the attack.

Agence France-Presse reported that Protsyuk died of wounds to his head and stomach. He had worked for Reuters since 1993, covering conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, and Afghanistan. He was married with an 8-year-old son.

Directly after the attack, Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, commander of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, confirmed that a single shell had been fired at the hotel from a tank in response to what he said was rocket and small arms fire from the building. Journalists at the hotel denied that any gunfire had emanated from the building.

A CPJ report concluded that the shelling of the hotel, while not deliberate, was avoidable since U.S. commanders knew that journalists were present in the hotel and were intent on not hitting it. The report called on the Pentagon to conduct a thorough and public investigation into the incident.

On August 12, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) issued a news release summarizing the results of its investigation into the incident. The report concluded that the tank unit that opened fire on the hotel did so "in a proportionate and justifiably measured response." It called the shelling "fully in accordance with the Rules of Engagement."

Centcom offered some detail—consistent with CPJ's investigation—that the tank opened fire at what it believed was an Iraqi "spotter" directing enemy fire at U.S. troops. The release also explained that "one 120mm tank round was fired at the suspected enemy observer position. ... It was only some time after the incident that A Company became aware of the fact that the building they fired on was the Palestine Hotel and that journalists at the hotel had been killed or injured as a result."

However, the news release failed to address one of the conclusions in CPJ's report: That U.S. commanders knew that journalists were in the Palestine Hotel but failed to convey this knowledge to forces on the ground.

Centcom's results, which were summarized in the release, appeared to back away from earlier charges by U.S. military officials that the tank unit was responding to hostile fire emanating from the hotel. Yet, despite considerable testimony to the contrary from several journalists in the hotel, Centcom maintains "that the enemy used portions of the hotel as a base of operations and that heavy enemy activity was occurring in those areas in and immediately around the hotel."

In addition, the news release failed to provide other specific information, such as how the decision to target the hotel was made.

CPJ has urged Centcom to make the full report available, but a Centcom spokesperson told CPJ the report is classified. CPJ is still waiting for the Defense Department to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act request related to the incident that CPJ filed in May.

Richard Wild, freelance, July 5, 2003, Baghdad

Wild, a 24-year-old British freelance cameraman who was working in Baghdad, died after an unidentified assailant approached him and shot him in the head at close range on a street near the city's Natural History Museum.

Wild, who had previously worked at Britain's ITN as a picture researcher, went to Iraq with aspirations of being a war reporter. Some press reports stated that Wild was not carrying a camera or wearing any clothing that would have identified him as a journalist at the time of the shooting. One of Wild's colleagues in Baghdad, British TV producer Michael Burke, told newspapers that Wild was working on a story about looting at the museum. While some speculated that he may have been mistaken for a member of the U.S. military, the motive for the murder remains unclear. CPJ considers that Wild was killed in action while working.

Jeremy Little, NBC News, July 6, 2003, Fallujah

Little, an Australian freelance soundman working for the U.S.-based television network NBC, was injured in a grenade attack in the Iraqi town of Fallujah on June 29 while embedded with U.S. troops. He died of "post-operative complications," according to a statement from NBC News. Little, 27, was embedded with the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division for NBC News and had been receiving treatment at a military hospital in Germany.

Mazen Dana, Reuters, August 17, 2003, outside Baghdad

Dana, a veteran conflict cameraman for Reuters news agency, was killed by machine gun fire from a U.S. tank near the capital, Baghdad. Dana was struck in the torso while filming near Abu Ghraib Prison, outside Baghdad, in the afternoon. He had been reporting with a colleague near the prison after a mortar attack had killed six Iraqis there the previous night. The soldier in the tank who fired on Dana did so without warning, while the journalist filmed the vehicle approaching him from about 55 yards (50 meters).

U.S. military officials said the soldier who opened fire mistook Dana's camera for a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher. There was no fighting taking place in the area, and the journalists had been operating in the vicinity of the prison with the knowledge of U.S. troops near the prison gates.

In an August 18 letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, CPJ protested the shooting, stating that it raised "serious questions about the conduct of U.S. troops and their rules of engagement."

On September 22, the U.S. military announced that it had concluded its investigation into the incident. A spokesman for U.S. Central Command (Centcom) in Iraq told CPJ that while Dana's killing was "regrettable," the soldier "acted within the rules of engagement." No further details were provided. The results of the investigation have not been made public. A Centcom spokesman said other details of the report are classified.

Dana's soundman, Nael Shyioukhi, who witnessed the incident, told CPJ that he and Dana arrived at the prison with their driver, Munzer Abbas, in the late afternoon. According to Shyioukhi, several journalists were also in the area. Shyioukhi said that after a short while Dana suggested that they approach the prison gates to begin filming. At one point, Dana identified himself to a U.S. soldier as a journalist from Reuters and asked if a spokesman was available to comment on camera about the attack the previous night. The soldier replied that he could not comment, and no spokesmen were available. Dana then asked the soldier if he and Shyioukhi could film the prison from a nearby bridge. According to Shyioukhi, the soldier politely told them they were welcome to do so.

After filming from the bridge, located between 330 and 660 yards (300 and 600 meters) from the prison, Dana and Shyioukhi, who were wearing jeans and T-shirts, packed their equipment in their car and began to head off for the Reuters office. As they approached the main road to the prison, Dana noticed a convoy of tanks approaching and told Abbas to stop so he could film it. According to Shyioukhi, he and Dana were not apprehensive because the area was calm, and it was apparent that U.S. troops were in complete control. Neither Dana nor Shyioukhi were wearing flak jackets, and their car was not marked press.

Dana exited the car and set up his blue, canvas-encased camera with a white microphone facing the tanks while Shyioukhi lit a cigarette. Shyioukhi said Dana filmed for about 10 seconds, when suddenly, without warning, several shots rang out from the lead tank, which was approximately 55 yards (50 meters) away.

Shyioukhi ducked for cover then heard Dana scream and place his hand on his stomach, which was bleeding profusely. He said that within moments of the shooting, approximately six U.S. soldiers, including the one who shot Dana, surrounded them. Shyioukhi recounted that the soldier who shot Dana screamed at Shyioukhi to "stand back."

A doctor arrived on an armored personnel carrier (APC) after about 10 minutes and tried to stop the bleeding. The APC took Dana back to the prison complex for treatment and to get him evacuated to a hospital.

U.S. military spokesman Col. Guy Shields called Dana's death a "tragic incident" and promised to do everything to avoid a similar incident in the future. When questioned by London's Independent about the rules of engagement for U.S. troops, Shields said, "I can't give you details on the rules of engagement, but the enemy is not in formations, they are not wearing uniforms. During wartime firing a warning shot is not a necessity. There is no time for a warning shot if there is potential for an ambush."

Some journalists at the scene questioned how troops could mistake the camera for a weapon. And according to experts who train war correspondents, although one might easily mistake a camera for an RPG launcher at a distance, a camera would be clearly visible from 55 to 110 yards (50 to 100 meters)—the distance at which Dana was hit.

Ahmad Kareem, Kurdistan TV, August 25, 2003, Mosul

Kareem, director of Kurdistan TV's Mosul bureau, was shot and killed by U.S. forces outside the bureau's office along the Tigris River. Kurdistan TV staff and an official from the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which runs Kurdistan TV, told CPJ that Kareem was sitting outside with a colleague writing a news report when a U.S. river patrol exchanged fire with an armed group situated on the same river bank as Kurdistan TV. Kareem and his colleague were shot as they sought refuge in the bureau. The colleague, a cameraman, survived.

Kareem and his colleague had decided to work outside because there was no electricity in the building and the office was excessively hot.

Bakhtiar Talabani, media director in Kirkuk for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said U.S. military officials visited the family's home days later to express their condolences and provide his children with a sum of money. The U.S. military has not investigated the incident nor has it issued an official apology.


Ahmed Shawkat, Bilah Ittijah, October 28, 2003, Mosul

Shawkat, editor of the weekly Bilah Ittijah (Without Direction), was shot and killed by one or more gunmen at his office in Mosul. According to press reports, a gunman and an accomplice followed the journalist to the roof of his office in the afternoon. One local journalist told CPJ that Shawkat was on the roof making a call from his satellite telephone when he was shot.

CPJ continues to investigate the case for more details, but based on current research, CPJ believes that Shawkat was killed for his work as a journalist.

Sources report that Shawkat's writing often criticized Islamists, Islam, the former regime of Saddam Hussein, and the U.S-led occupation. According to one local journalist who has followed the case, Shawkat had recently written a piece that questioned whether or not Arabic was the language of heaven.

Shawkat's daughter, Roaa, who also works at Bilah Ittijah, told CPJ in an e-mail that her father had received several verbal threats warning him to close the newspaper, as well as one written threat a few months before his death. The Washington Post reported on November 16 that Shawkat's son, Sindbad, said that the written threat accused Shawkat of being a Zionist guilty of colluding with infidels. The Post reported that Sindbad had warned his father not to write about foreign Islamist extremists in Iraq.

According to the local journalist, Shawkat was confronted in his office a few days prior to his shooting by several men with long beards—sometimes a sign of religiosity in Muslim countries. The journalist told CPJ that a man who has an office in the same building as the paper told investigators that he saw the same bearded men fleeing the scene after Shawkat was shot. The journalist said that both local and regional police were investigating the case, but that the regional police has ended its investigations and closed the case file for lack of evidence. The journalist said that an employee of the paper, whom Roaa also mentioned in her e-mail to CPJ as being a suspect in the case, was released by police, also for lack of evidence.


ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES: 2

Nazih Darwazeh, Associated Press Television News, April 19, 2003, Nablus

Darwazeh, a cameraman for The Associated Press Television News (APTN), was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus while filming clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli troops at around 9 a.m., according to Palestinian journalists who witnessed the incident. Video footage of the incident, reviewed by CPJ, appears to corroborate their accounts.

The shooting occurred after clashes erupted in Nablus when Israeli forces entered the city's downtown area in tanks, searching for an alleged Palestinian suicide bomber. Clashes broke out in several locations near the city's center, involving youths throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli troops. Some Palestinian gunmen were also observed firing guns, according to press accounts.

At the time that Darwazeh was shot, he had been filming an Israeli tank stranded at the corner of an alleyway. Darwazeh and several other Palestinian journalists were standing by a door in the alleyway. A few minutes before Darwazeh was killed, Reuters cameraman Hassan Titi filmed a group of Palestinian youths running down the alley away from the stranded tank. Titi and Reuters photographer Abed Qusini, who were standing near Darwazeh, said that an Israeli soldier crouched under the tank and quickly fired a single shot at the journalists from a distance of about 11 to 22 yards (10 or 20 meters). Darwazeh was struck in the back of the head and died instantly.

Titi and Qusini said there were no clashes or gunfire in the alley at the time, although there had been some Palestinian gunfire in the vicinity earlier. The AP reported that gunfire may have struck near the tank at around the same time, but that it likely came from a different direction from where Darwazeh was standing.

Maj. Sharon Feingold, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), was quoted by the AP as saying that Israeli troops had been rescuing the stranded tank when they were attacked with stones, and "explosive devices and shots were fired from the crowd." Despite eyewitness accounts and video footage, the IDF said that it was unclear who fired the shot that killed Darwazeh.

Darwazeh and his colleagues were clearly identified as members of the press, based on the testimony of those at the scene and the video footage of the events. In fact, Darwazeh was wearing a fluorescent jacket marked press, and before the shooting, the journalists said they shouted loudly in both English and Hebrew indicating that they were with the media.

The IDF says it is investigating the incident but has not released any details.

James Miller, freelance, May 2, 2003, Rafah

Miller, a British freelance cameraman and film director with U.K.-based Frostbite Films, was fatally shot in the Gaza Strip. An award-winning documentary filmmaker, the journalist was with a crew in the town of Rafah in southern Gaza near the Egyptian border filming an HBO documentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That evening, he and his four-person crew were in a Palestinian home filming the army's demolition of houses in the area that the Israeli army alleged contained tunnels used to smuggle arms.

According to published testimonies of eyewitnesses and an Associated Press Television News cameraman who was filming in the same house, the incident occurred between 11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., when the group decided to leave. Miller, his producer Saira Shah, and translator Abdul Rahman Abdullah attempted to identify themselves to the Israeli troops in the area while they were leaving. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops were in armored personnel carriers (APCs) about 330 feet (100 meters) away from the house where the journalists had been filming.

The journalists were wearing jackets and helmets marked "TV." Abdullah waved a white flag while Miller used a flashlight to illuminate the flag. As they approached the APCs, the journalists shouted "Hello," and then a shot was fired. The journalists yelled that they were British journalists, and a second shot was fired immediately after. In video footage of the incident, it appears that that the second shot hit Miller, who was struck in the neck. Several more shots followed.

An Israeli army spokesman was quoted as saying that troops in the area returned fire after being fired on by rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). Later, the army said that Miller was struck by a bullet from behind, claiming that he may have been hit by Palestinian fire.

A detailed onsite investigation sponsored by Miller's colleagues, friends, and family and conducted by British security consultant Chris Cobb-Smith of Chiron Resources Limited security company (www.chiron-resources.com) concluded that Miller and his crew "were consciously and deliberately targeted by the IDF soldiers." The report added that it is not clear "whether this action is a deliberate policy by the IDF or whether this incident is a result of ill discipline and malicious intent by the junior soldiers." A copy of the investigation is available at a Web site hosted by James Miller's family, www.justice4jamesmiller.com.

According to the investigation, the area where Miller's crew was operating was quiet for about an hour before he was killed. Prior to that time, witnesses heard only sporadic gunfire, but not in the journalists' vicinity. The report concluded that the IDF must have known that the journalists were in the area.

After viewing the video taken of the incident, Cobb-Smith discounted the IDF's claim that RPG fire had occurred before the troops opened fire on the journalists and observed that the shots were fired without warning. Based on the trajectory of the bullets fired, as well as the unanimous testimony of eyewitnesses who said the fire came from the direction of the APC's, Cobb-Smith also disagrees with suggestions from Israeli officials that the shots came from behind the crew.

As of press time, an Israeli military police investigation into the incident was under way, and the IDF's investigation had not been made public.

IVORY COAST: 1

OCTOBER 21, 2003

Jean Hélène, Radio France Internationale
KILLED

Hélène, correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI) in Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan, was shot by a police officer in the evening outside the national police headquarters in central Abidjan while waiting to interview detained opposition activists who were being released, according to local and international press reports. The officer was arrested immediately and the Ivoirian government promised an investigation.

After Hélène's family, RFI, and the France-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders applied in France to become civil parties in the case, a French public prosecutor began conducting an investigation into the murder. Under French law, French authorities have jurisdiction in the case because the victim was French. Although the French and Ivoirian inquiries are legally separate, officials have been cooperating. France and Ivory Coast have a bilateral treaty on judicial cooperation dating back to Ivoirian independence.

The day Hélène was killed, he was waiting in his car in front of the headquarters when the officer walked over and asked what he was doing, according to press reports. The journalist said he was waiting to talk to opposition party members. The officer then went into the building, came back out, and fired two shots, hitting Hélène in the head and killing him instantly.

Although the motive for the killing is unknown, the assassination occurred against a background of anti-French sentiment since Ivory Coast plunged into civil war and crisis in September 2002. France has troops in the country and helped broker a peace agreement signed in Paris in January 2003. The international—and especially French-media have also come under attack from the local press since the crisis began.
Jérome Bouvier, director of RFI's French-language services, told CPJ that the climate for foreign journalists had been extremely difficult but seemed to have improved in the months before the killing. "That's what makes it even more shocking," he said. " It happened in the center of the city, in front of an official building full of people in uniform."

Hélène had been covering Africa for RFI for more than 10 years, including conflicts in Rwanda and Somalia. He was known for his rigor, independence, and calm. In one of many tributes, French President Jacques Chirac described Hélène as "a great professional who died doing his job in the service of providing information about the Africa he knew so well."

On January 22, 2004, a military court in Abidjan sentenced Ivoirian police officer Sgt. Théodore Séry Dago to 17 years in prison for Hélène's murder. The officer was also fined 500,000 CFA francs (US$960), stripped of his rank in the national police, and barred from voting or leaving his home province for 10 years. The tribunal ordered the Ivoirian State to pay 137 million CFA francs (US$263,850) in damages to Hélène's heirs.

JAPAN: 1

Satoru Someya, freelance, September 6, 2003, Tokyo

Locksmith Keizo Sakurai and two accomplices kidnapped and then murdered freelance journalist Someya. On September 12, police found Someya's body near a pier in Tokyo Bay. On April 27, 2004, Sakurai pleaded guilty in the Tokyo District Court to murdering Someya in retribution for Someya's reporting about Sakurai's alleged criminal activities, according to Japanese press reports.

According to his confession, Sakurai, together with Yoshihiro Kumamoto and Ryoichi Fujii, kidnapped Someya in Tokyo on September 6, 2003, and held him in an apartment, where they tried to force him to apologize for portraying Sakurai in a negative light in his book Kabukicho Underground. When Someya refused to apologize, the three men put him on a boat, stabbed him several times, and dumped his body in Tokyo Bay.

When police found Someya's body, it was wrapped in a weighted chain, his hands were tied with rope, and he had eight stab wounds in his back and two gashes in his head, according to police reports. Kumamoto and Fujii also pleaded guilty in the case. Sakurai, Kumamoto, and Fujii were formally charged with murder on January 16, 2004.

Someya, 38, reported for various magazines about organized crime in Tokyo under the pen name Kuragaki Kashiwabara. In July 2003, he published Kabukicho Underground, a book about Chinese criminal groups operating in Kabukicho, Tokyo's notorious red light district. Although Someya had praised Sakurai in a 2002 book, Sakurai believed that Someya's portrayal in Kabukicho Underground of an unnamed locksmith involved in criminal activities referred to him. When pleading guilty, Sakurai stated , "If I did not kill him, I would still have been a victim of false accusations by the dirty writer and would have suffered social ostracism. I could not help but kill him," according to a report in the Japan Times.

In the postscript to Kabukicho Underground, Someya wrote that he might be in danger because of his investigations, according to press reports.

NEPAL: 2

Dhan Bahadur Rokka Magar, Radio Nepal, January 30, 2003, Jaluki
ADDED: March 31, 2005

Rokka Magar, a newsreader for the Kham Magar­language service of Radio Nepal, was abducted by Maoist rebels on August 1, 2002, while traveling by bus to the town of Surkhet, where he worked. Rebels intercepted the bus near Jaluki, a Maoist-controlled village near the borders of Western Rolpa and Pyuthan districts, and kidnapped several passengers, including Rokka Magar and a representative from the British charity Gurkha Welfare Trust.

It was not clear why the Maoists targeted certain passengers, but rebels generally view journalists working for state-run Radio Nepal as government agents.

In October 2004, rebels informed Rokka Magar's wife, Dil Kumari, that he had been taken to Khawang, a forested area between Rukum and Rolpa in midwestern Nepal, and killed in January 2003 on suspicion of spying for the government, according to local news reports.

The news was first reported in the Nepalese media in March 2005. Rokka Magar had been on CPJ's missing list, but his case was reclassified based on the new reports. The journalist's body has not been found.

Gyanendra Khadka, Rastriya Samachar Samiti, September 7, 2003, Jyamire, Sindhupalchowk

Khadka, 35, a journalist with the state-owned news agency Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS), was brutally murdered in Nepal's eastern Sindhupalchowk District by a group of suspected Maoist rebels.

According to RSS, the rebels took Khadka away from a school where he taught part time and led him to a nearby field, where they tied his hands to a pole and slit his throat. No motive is known for his murder, but during Nepal's 7-year-old civil war, both rebels and government security forces have targeted journalists. Local journalists believe that the rebels killed Khadka because he was a journalist.

Khadka is the first journalist to be killed in Nepal since the rebels broke a cease-fire agreement with government forces in August. His murder came amid intensified violence in the country, as well as increased attacks on journalists.

Khadka's murder has outraged the journalistic community in Nepal. A group of at least 30 journalists gathered to peacefully protest the killing on September 11, but police dispersed them and detained them briefly for defying a ban on demonstrations.



PAKISTAN: 1

Fazal Wahab, freelance, January 21, 2003, Mingora

Wahab, a freelance writer, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen while he was sitting in a roadside shop in Manglawar Bazaar, near the resort town of Mingora in northwestern Pakistan. The shopkeeper and his young assistant also died in the attack.

Wahab, who lived in Mingora, had published several books in Urdu and in Pashto—the language spoken in the border region of Pakistan and parts of neighboring Afghanistan—that criticized local religious leaders and Islamic militant organizations.

Local journalists and human rights activists told CPJ that Wahab had been receiving threats for years in response to his writings. Although they do not know who is responsible for his murder, his colleagues believe that he was targeted for his work.

Among Wahab's most controversial works was a book titled Mullah Ka Kirdar (The Mullah's Role), which analyzed the Islamic clergy's involvement in politics. He had also recently completed a manuscript about Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.

During the last decade, a militant group known as Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Mohammadi (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law) has gained strength in Mingora and the surrounding Malakand Region. Wahab's writings and outspoken opposition to radical and militant strains of Islam made him particularly vulnerable to attack.

PHILIPPINES: 5

Apolinario "Polly" Pobeda, DWTI-AM radio, May 17, 2003, Lucena City, Quezon

At about 6:00 a.m., two unidentified gunmen stopped radio host Pobeda as he rode his motorcycle to work in Lucena City, Quezon Province, and shot him repeatedly, according to Philippine press reports. Pobeda suffered seven gunshot wounds, including one to his head. He was brought to a hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

On Pobeda's radio program "Nosi Balasi" (Who Are They?), which he co-hosted on DWTI-AM, the journalist often criticized corrupt local officials. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that Pobeda was particularly outspoken against Lucena City Mayor Ramon Talaga, whom the journalist had accused of being involved in the local drug trade.

Pobeda had received repeated anonymous death threats, including one about a month before his murder, according to his wife, Rowena Morales.

On May 22, police arrested brothers Eric and Eulogio Patulay as suspects in the murder. An eyewitness to the crime had identified them as the triggermen, according to local police. Press reports said the Patulay brothers were bodyguards of Romano Talaga, Ramon Talaga's son, although Romano Talaga claimed they had just acted as his "guides" when he traveled. Both the Patulays and Ramon Talaga denied any involvement in Pobeda's murder. A third suspect remains at large.

Pobeda's colleagues and family members say he was murdered for his work. "My husband was killed because he exposed the wrongdoing of the government," Rowena Morales told the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, a Manila-based press freedom organization.

Bonifacio Gregorio, Dyaryo Banat, July 8, 2003, La Paz, Tarlac

Gregorio, a reporter and columnist for the weekly Dyaryo Banat, in La Paz, a town in the central Tarlac Province, was talking to a colleague on a cell phone in front of his house when an unidentified gunman shot him in the head three times at close range. According to news reports, the gunman was likely a professional killer who fled the scene on foot. Gregorio was rushed to La Paz District Hospital before being transferred to Ramos General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Local journalists believe that Gregorio, 55, was killed for his journalistic work. Before joining the newspaper, Gregorio served for nine years as chief of Caramutan, a barangay, or village, in La Paz. During his three years as a columnist for Dyaryo Banat, Gregorio wrote many critical articles about officials in La Paz, including Mayor Dionisio Manuel. Shortly before Gregorio's death, the journalist had accused Manuel of building a cemetery without following local regulations. In interviews with local newspapers, Manuel has denied having anything to do with Gregorio's death.

While police have formed a special task force to solve Gregorio's murder, and Tarlac governor Jose Yap Sr. has publicly urged police to find the killer and prosecute him, no arrests have been made.

Noel Villarante, DZJV Radio and Laguna Score, August 19, 2003, Santa Cruz, Laguna Province

Villarante, of DZJV Radio and the local newspaper Laguna Score, was shot and killed by a gunman outside his house in Santa Cruz City in central Laguna Province. After being shot once, Villarante ran inside his home. While his relatives helped him outside again to get to a hospital, the gunman shot Villarante twice in the head, killing him instantly.

Villarante was known for his critical reports on allegedly corrupt local officials and drug traffickers. An editor of Laguna Score told journalists he believes that Villarante was murdered in reprisal for his work, and that the reporter had received numerous death threats in the past.

On August 26, police in Laguna announced that they had arrested Senando Palumbarit, identified in press reports as a civilian police agent, as a suspect in Villarante's murder. The National Bureau of Investigation said that Palumbarit's arrest was based on a police sketch of the suspect. Palumbarit has denied any involvement in the murder.

Local journalists have expressed concerns that the investigation into Villarante's killing has not been conducted in a thorough and impartial manner, and that Palumbarit's arrest is part of a police effort to protect high-profile individuals who may be responsible for killing the journalist. Soon after the murder, Santa Cruz Police Chief Superintendent Renato Paras told The Philippine Daily Inquirer that investigators were hesitant to reveal too many details about the case because high-profile individuals could be behind the killing.

Soon after Villarante's murder, police ransacked his house and confiscated a number of articles he had written, according to the Philippine Star newspaper. Villarante's sister told the Star that during the search, officers treated her family and her deceased brother as criminal suspects. The regional police superintendent has ordered an investigation into the incident.

Rico Ramirez, DXSF Radio, August 20, 2003, Agusan del Sur

Police found the body of Ramirez, a commentator for DXSF Radio, on the side of the road in San Francisco, a town in the southern province of Agusan del Sur. Authorities did not announce the murder until September 2 but offered no explanation for the two-week delay.

Police said that Ramirez had been shot once in the back, but that the investigation was hindered by the fact that there were no witnesses. According to The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Ramirez had reported on corruption, drug trafficking, and official wrongdoing by local politicians.

A DXSF Radio manager told the Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility that Ramirez could have been killed "because of his recent exposés on the crime and drug syndicates operating in the area." Police also told journalists that he was likely killed by drug traffickers he had exposed on air.

Juan "Jun" Pala, DXGO radio, September 6, 2003, Davao City

Unidentified gunmen riding a motorcycle shot Pala, a commentator on DXGO radio, while he was walking home with a bodyguard and a friend in Davao City. The journalist, who suffered nine gunshot wounds, was pronounced dead on arrival at the San Pedro Hospital, according to the Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR). His companions sustained minor injuries.

In the 1980s, Pala was known for his fiery criticisms of communist rebel groups. At that time, he also served as a spokesperson for an anti-communist vigilante group. In recent years, his radio show has focused more on exposing corruption among local politicians, according to CMFR and press reports.

Pala had repeatedly been targeted for attack before his death. On April 29, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a taxi carrying the journalist, wounding him in the buttocks. Since that attack, Pala aired his show, "Isumbong Mo Kay Pala" (Tell Pala), from his home, according to CMFR.

Following Pala's murder, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the Philippine National Police to form a task force to investigate all recent murders of journalists.

RUSSIA: 2

Aleksei Sidorov, Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye, October 9, 2003, Togliatti

Sidorov, the editor-in-chief of the independent daily Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye, was murdered in Togliatti, a city on the Volga River 600 miles (960 kilometers) east of the capital, Moscow.

Sidorov was the second editor-in-chief of Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye to be murdered in the last two years. His predecessor, Valery Ivanov, was shot at point-blank range in April 2002.

According to local press reports, two unidentified assailants stabbed Sidorov several times in the chest late in the evening while he was approaching the apartment building in Togliatti where he lived with his family. The assailants fled after stabbing Sidorov, and the editor died in his wife's arms after she heard his call for help and came down to the entrance of their building.

Journalists at Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye-a newspaper known for its investigative reporting on organized crime, government corruption, and shady corporate deals in the heavily industrialized city of Togliatti-are convinced the murder is in retaliation for Sidorov's work.

"All of our investigative work was supervised by Aleksei," a journalist at Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye told CPJ. Another journalist at the paper told CPJ that Sidorov had received unspecified threats in retaliation for his work.

Government officials initially agreed that Sidorov's murder appeared to be a contract killing in retaliation for his work. But a week after the killing, officials began offering conflicting explanations about the motive for the murder. On October 16, the local head of the Interior Ministry, Vladimir Shcherbakov, said Sidorov was stabbed after refusing to give a stranger a sip of some vodka he had supposedly been drinking, the independent Moscow daily Gazeta reported.

That same day, Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov said the murder was related to "the journalist's professional activity," the independent Moscow daily Kommersant reported. But the next day, he switched his story, calling the murder "an act of hooliganism," the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

According to the local press reports, Samara's Deputy Prosecutor General Yevgeny Novozhylov said that an intoxicated welder from one of the local factories, Yevgeny Maininger, stumbled upon Sidorov that evening and murdered him after a brief argument. Local police detained Maininger on October 12 and charged him with murder on October 21 after he confessed to the killing.

Sidorov's family and journalists at Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye were skeptical that authorities had found the true killer-and a year later, a Russian district court judge confirmed their doubts by acquitting Maininger.

On October 11, 2004, Judge Andrei Kirillov found that the 29-year-old Maininger was not involved in Sidorov's murder and said the prosecution's case was untenable, the independent Moscow daily Kommersant reported.

Sidorov's father said the family was pleased that the acquittal ended what they considered to be a flawed investigation. "The investigation, instead of seeking out the real killer of my son, tried to dump everything on this innocent person," said Vladimir Sidorov, according to local press reports. "We will do everything possible to ensure that [authorities] start a normal investigation."

Karen Nersisian, the defense lawyer representing the Sidorov family, said he will work to have the case transferred to a higher court in Moscow, according to local press reports.

Yuri Shchekochikhin, Novaya Gazeta, July 3, 2003, Moscow

Shchekochikhin, 53, then deputy editor of the independent Moscow twice-weekly Novaya Gazeta, died 12 days after being hospitalized in a Moscow clinic with what doctors said was an acute allergic reaction, according to CPJ interviews and multiple press reports.

Shchekochikhin’s relatives and colleagues believe the journalist was poisoned to prevent him from further uncovering the truth about a high-level corruption case involving officials from the Federal Security Services (FSB) and the Prosecutor General’s Office. Based on the circumstances and secrecy surrounding Shchekochikhin’s death, and the dangerous subject he was investigating at the time, CPJ also believes there is sufficient reason for launching a murder probe. The Prosecutor General’s Office has repeatedly denied Novaya Gazeta’s requests to open a murder investigation into Shchekochikhin’s death, citing lack of foul play evidence.

Shchekochikhin worked for Novaya Gazeta since 1996, covering dangerous assignments such as the Chechen conflict, high-powered corruption, arms trade, and organized crime. From 2001 until his sudden death in 2003, he had published a series of detailed investigative reports on a smuggling and corruption case that involved a Moscow furniture store known as Tri Kita (Three Whales). As a member of Russia’s parliament, Shchekochikhin interviewed officials and gained access to documents related to the case.

While the Tri Kita case seemed like a regular business fraud case— the store had smuggled European furniture without paying taxes and customs fees—it involved high-ranking FSB officials who were found to have used the furniture business to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through the Bank of New York in the late ’90s.

In a February 18, 2002, lengthy article for Novaya Gazeta, Shchekochikhin revealed evidence that the Prosecutor General’s Office had received US$2 million in bribes in order to stop a Tri Kita corruption investigation.

Following its publication, Shchekochikhin received threats but continued investigating. In March 2002, as deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security, he helped launch a parliamentary probe into the Tri Kita case. The probe was rejected by then Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov who refused to re-open the Tri Kita case, citing lack of evidence of criminal activity.

In April 2002 Shchekochikhin wrote President Vladimir Putin to request he take the case under his personal control. President Putin responded positively, but as of June 2003 the case had gone nowhere. On June 2, 2003, Shchekochikhin published another detailed article on the Tri Kita affair—his last one. Exactly a month after the material appeared in Novaya Gazeta, Shchekochikhin was dead.

The June 2 piece criticized the corruption in Russia’s law enforcement. The piece followed up the May 27, 2003, assassination of a key witness in the Tri Kita case. The witness, Sergei Pereverzev, then president of Russia’s Furniture Business Association and a former navy captain, had received threats ahead of his court testimony and had publicly said he feared for his life, Shcheckochikhin wrote. On May 14, Pereverzev was injured in a car crash and taken to a Moscow military hospital. Thirteen days later, he was assassinated by a gunman who had somehow managed to penetrate the heavily guarded neurosurgical ward.

Exactly one month after the piece was published, Shchekochikhin was dead—victim of an “unknown allergen” that caused organs failure.

On June 17, 2003, while on a business trip in the city of Ryazan, 200 kilometers (120 miles) south-east of Moscow, Shchekochikhin suddenly felt sick with flu-like symptoms. He returned to Moscow that day with a fever, sore throat, body aches, and a burning sensation all over his skin, Novaya Gazeta reported. The next day, a doctor diagnosed him with an acute respiratory viral infection. But Shchekochikhin’s health rapidly deteriorated in the next few days and he was hospitalized on June 21. In the next 12 days, the journalist’s organs failed one by one—his skin literally peeled off his body; he lost all of his hair; his lungs, liver, kidneys, and, finally, his brain stopped functioning.

Doctors said Shchekochikhin’s symptoms were consistent with the Lyell’s Syndrome—a severe allergic reaction to medications or infections, Novaya Gazeta said. But the allergen that caused the reaction was never identified. Moreover, Shchekochikhin’s clinical test results were classified as “medical secret.” Moscow Central Clinical Hospital authorities have refused family and colleagues access to those.

Without clinical test results, the Prosecutor General’s Office says there is no evidence of foul play and refuses to open a murder case into Shchekochikhin’s death. Medical authorities, in turn, say they can only grant access to Shchekochikhin’s file if prosecutors need to use it as evidence in a criminal investigation, according to a Novaya Gazeta article from January 15, 2007.

A month before his death, Shchekochikhin had met with officials from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), and had obtained an American visa. He was to travel to the United States to discuss the Bank of New York, money-laundering, connection in the Tri Kita case, according to local and international press reports. He never made it to the States.

SOMALIA: 1

Abdullahi Madkeer, DMC Radio, January 24, 2003, Baidoa

Madkeer, a journalist with DMC Radio, was accidentally shot in the stomach by members of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA) militia while covering the reopening of Baidoa Airport in the southwest of the country, according to the Somali Journalists' Network (SOJON) and the Action Alert Group, a press freedom organization. He was taken to a hospital and died that day after doctors refused to operate on him because he was HIV positive.

The shooting occurred while militia belonging to the RRA faction of Shaykh Adan Madobe fired on the airport crowd to drive them back from an aircraft with a cargo of the narcotic khat. The airport had just reopened after months of war between rival RRA factions in the region.

SOJON quoted Madkeer's father as saying that there has been no investigation into his son's death because of civil war and lawlessness in Baidoa Region. According to SOJON, Madkeer's death has left his family destitute.

Madkeer's station, DMC Radio, has since been forced to close after local fighters from RRA factions requisitioned the stations' offices.