CPJ research indicates that the following individuals have been killed in 2008 because of their work as journalists. They either died in the line of duty or were deliberately targeted for assassination because of their reporting or their affiliation with a news organization.
See our list of pending investigations into suspicious deaths, called Killed: Motive Unconfirmed.
See the list of Journalists Who Disappeared.
See the list of Media Workers Killed.
Total Confirmed Cases For 2008: 41
AFGHANISTAN: 2
Carsten Thomassen, Dagbladet
January 15, 2008, Kabul
Thomassen, a 38-year-old Norwegian who worked for the Oslo daily Dagbladet, was among eight people who died in a coordinated suicide bomb attack at Kabul's Serena Hotel, a gathering place for much of the country's expatriate community.
The attack came during a visit by Norwegian Foreign Minister
Jonas Gahr Støre, who was in the hotel but was uninjured. Four hotel guards, a
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that Støre was the intended target. The Norwegian government held that Støre was not specifically targeted and that the attack was aimed at the country's foreign community at large. About 500 Norwegian troops were taking part in NATO-led forces in Afghanistan at the time.
The day after the attack, Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh told a press conference that three Taliban militants wearing suicide jackets filled with explosives ran onto the hotel grounds. The jacket of one assailant exploded after he was shot by a hotel guard outside the building. A second assailant detonated his explosives inside the hotel; the third was arrested later.
Abdul Samad Rohani, BBC and Pajhwok Afghan
News
June 7 or 8, 2008, Lashkar Gah
Rohani disappeared on the evening of June 7. His body was found with multiple bullet wounds the next day in a cemetery near Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, according to local and international news reports. Rohani was the Helmand reporter for BBC's Pashto service and contributed to the Pajhwok Afghan News agency, the country's largest independent news service.
A native of Helmand, Rohani had distinguished himself as a well-connected and eloquent reporter, according to colleagues. Rohani, 25, the oldest son in a family of seven children, was married with two children.
Pajhwok Director Danish Karokhel, who reviewed the reporter's phone records and laptop, said he believed Rohani was killed for his reporting on drug trafficking and its possible ties to government officials.
Helmand province, which lies along the restive border with Pakistan, is home to Taliban and al-Qaeda militants, as well as a flourishing opium trade. Some Afghan news reports quoted an unidentified government spokesman as saying that Rohani was killed by Taliban militants. A Taliban spokesman told The Associated Press that his group was not behind the reporter's death.
BOLIVIA: 1
Carlos Quispe Quispe, Radio
Municipal
March 29, 2008, Pucarani
Quispe, a journalist working for a government-run radio station in Pucarani, died March 29 after being severely beaten two days earlier by protesters demanding the ouster of the local mayor.
On the afternoon of March 27, at least 150 protesters rallied outside the government building in Pucarani, a small city about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the capital, La Paz, and called for the ouster of Mayor Alejandro Mamani. The mayor had been accused of corruption, according to local press reports and CPJ interviews. The protesters forced their way into the municipal building and broke down the door to the government-run Radio Municipal. Witnesses told radio station Onda Local that demonstrators destroyed station equipment and identified Quispe as "the mouth on the radio."
Protestors wielding whips and metal rods beat Quispe in the
head and chest, according to an official in the mayor's office who spoke to CPJ
on condition of anonymity. Quispe, a journalism student at
Radio Municipal, the only radio station in Pucarani, provided government information and community news, according to Bolivian journalists. Quispe delivered a daily noontime news report, Juan Javier Zeballos, executive director of the National Press Association, told CPJ. Quispe also hosted a nightly music program and often interviewed Mamani, who talked about government projects and fielded questions from listeners.
Wilson Arteaga, a reporter for Onda Local who traveled to Pucarani to investigate the incident, told CPJ that Radio Municipal's facilities were destroyed. Local police did not return CPJ's messages seeking comment.
Khem Sambo, Moneaseka Khmer
July 11, 2008, Phnom Penh
A journalist with the opposition-aligned Khmer-language daily Moneaseka Khmer, Khem Sambo was shot twice while riding his motorcycle with his 21-year-old son, according to international and local news reports. His son was also shot and killed. The gunmen, who were on a motorcycle, sped away after the shooting, news reports said.
Moneaseka Khmer is
affiliated with the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, and Sambo was among the
publication's most hard-hitting reporters. An analysis of Sambo's reporting in
the weeks before his murder, compiled by the Cambodian League for the Defense
and Promotion of Human Rights and reviewed by CPJ, found a steady stream of
critical reporting on Hun Sen and his ruling
Sambo's most recent reports, written under the pseudonyms
Srey Ka or Den Sorin, touched on allegations of government corruption, internal
rifts inside the ruling party, and questions about the distribution of benefits
from recent rapid Chinese investment in the country. Moneaseka Khmer is one of only a handful of consistently
critical publications in
Cambodian police officials said they had not identified a motive or suspects in the murder, which occurred during the run-up to general elections on July 27.
Ivo Pukanic, Nacional
October 23, 2008, Zagreb
Pukanic, owner and editorial director of the Zagreb-based political weekly Nacional, and Niko Franjic, the marketing director, were killed when a bomb placed under the journalist's car exploded outside the paper's offices, according to press reports and CPJ sources. Local press reports said Pukanic and Franjic were close to the car when the blast took place. Nacional often exposed corruption, organized crime, and human rights abuses, local sources told CPJ.
Croatian authorities moved swiftly to pursue the killers. On October 24, The Associated Press quoted Prime Minister Ivo Sanader as saying that authorities "will fight organized crime or terrorism--whatever is behind this murder--to its very end." On November 1, Croatian police announced that they had charged five suspects in connection with the murder.
In addition, police spokesman Krunoslav Borovec said
investigators were working with Bosnian authorities to track down the suspect
they believe planted the bomb. Local press reports identified the suspect as
Zeljko Milovanovic, a Bosnian Serb and former member of a Serbian paramilitary
group called the Red Berets. He held both Croatian and Bosnian passports,
according to the independent Serbian broadcaster B92. According to Reuters,
Bosnian police raided Milovanovic's house in the northern Bosnian town of
Pukanic had reported an earlier attack to police. In April, he told police, an unidentified assailant approached him near his apartment building, brandished a handgun and fired, narrowly missing him, the Croatian news Web site Javno reported. The assailant was not apprehended.
GEORGIA: 3
Alexander Klimchuk, freelance,
Caucasus Images
Grigol Chikhladze, freelance, Caucasus Images
August 10, 2008, Tskhinvali
Klimchuk, 27, and Chikhladze, 30, were killed in
Russian press reports said Klimchuk, head of the Tbilisi-based Caucasus Images photo agency, was on assignment for the Russian news service Itar-Tass. Chikhladze, a freelancer and member of Caucasus Images, was covering the conflict for Russian Newsweek. The two journalists had freelanced for a number of Russian and international news agencies.
The Russian business daily Kommersant, citing information from Caucasus Images, said the journalists were killed by South Ossetian militia. Kommersant reported that Klimchuk, Chikhladze, and two other reporters--U.S. journalist Winston Featherly and Georgian colleague Temuri Kiguradze of the Tbilisi-based, English-language newspaper The Messenger--were trying to avoid a roadblock set up by South Ossetian militia when they saw a group of armed men.
The journalists reportedly could not identify whether the armed men were Georgian soldiers or South Ossetian militiamen because it was dark. Klimchuk greeted them in Georgian and the armed men started shooting, Kommersant reported. Klimchuk and Chikhladze died at the scene, while Featherly and Kiguradze were wounded and hospitalized.
Stan Storimans, RTL
Nieuws
August 12, 2008, Gori
Storimans, a 39-year-old Dutch cameraman who worked for the
Hilversum-based television channel RTL Nieuws, was killed in an attack in the
central Georgian city of
Storimans and Akkermans had traveled from
A Dutch government probe found that a Russian cluster bomb was the source of the attack, prompting protests from that country's foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, according to international press reports. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs disputed the finding.
INDIA: 4
Mohammed Muslimuddin, Asomiya Pratidin
April 1, 2008, Barpukhuri
About six assailants armed with "sharp weapons" attacked Mohammed Muslimuddin, a correspondent with the vernacular daily Asomiya Pratidin, near his residence in the village of Barpukhuri in central Assam state, according to local news reports. He died of multiple injuries to the head, chest, stomach, and back en route to a hospital in the capital, Guwahati, the reports said.
News reports quoting senior editors at his newspaper said Muslimuddin was targeted for writing about criminal activities, including the illegal drug trade, in the weeks leading up to his murder. His reporting implicated local influential figures and politicians, according to news reports. Local journalists told CPJ that they staged protests throughout the state to call attention to the murder. Three individuals were arrested on April 4 in connection with the killing, according to news reports.
Ashok Sodhi, Daily Excelsior
May 11, 2008, Samba
Sodhi, a senior photographer with the local
English-language Daily Excelsior in
Indian-controlled
The BBC said suspected militants holding several hostages exchanged fire with security forces. Three militants, one soldier, and three other civilians were killed in the battle, which lasted several hours, the BBC reported.
Sodhi got his start as a print journalist before becoming a photographer, eventually rising to the position of chief photographer at his newspaper, according to an obituary posted on the citizen journalism Web site Merinews.
The violence was the worst reported in the volatile region
since 2002, according to local news reports. Police said militants crossing the
border from
Separatist groups disputing Indian rule of Kashmir have led an often violent insurgency for nearly two decades in the quest for independence or union with Pakistan.
Javed Ahmed Mir, Channel 9
August 13, 2008, Srinagar
Security forces shot and killed Mir while he was
covering protests during a spate of violence in the northern Indian state of
A BBC report said the cameraman, who had two other jobs to support his wife and three children, was called from a wedding to cover a growing protest rally on a main road in the state's summer capital, Srinagar, and was shot in the head while waiting for equipment to arrive from the news channel.
Local journalists told CPJ that he worked for the local news
station, Channel 9. Amin War, a photographer for the local Daily Tribune,
told CPJ by telephone from
The BBC report said that 26 people were killed as
police tried to restore order. A transfer of land to a Hindu shrine in June
fueled protests in the unstable Muslim majority state, where separatist groups
lead an often violent movement for independence for
Vikas Ranjan, Hindustan
November 25, 2008, Rosera
Ranjan, a correspondent for the Hindi-language daily Hindustan, was shot in the town of Rosera in the Samastipur district of northern Bihar state, according to Alok Mohit, news editor of the English-language sister paper Hindustan Times, who spoke with CPJ by telephone.
Three men on motorbikes fired several shots at Ranjan as he left his office for the evening, according to local news reports. He was declared dead on arrival at the local hospital.
Mohit, who had spoken with colleagues in Samastipur, told CPJ that Ranjan wrote about crime and corruption as a part-time correspondent for Hindustan, and that he had been receiving threats for some time. Three of his recent reports on counterfeit merchandise and stolen goods trafficking had sparked official inquiries, according to Mohit. Police were investigating the murder, according to news reports.
IRAQ: 11
Alaa Abdul-Karim al-Fartoosi, Al-Forat
January 29, 2008, Balad
Al-Fartoosi, a cameraman for satellite channel Al-Forat, and driver Alaa Aasi were killed by a roadside bomb as they entered the town of Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, at around 6:15 p.m., according to the director of external relations for the channel, Mihssen Mohammad Hussein.
The cameraman and driver were traveling with correspondent
Hussein said the crew was filming a report to commemorate the second anniversary of the bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra, one of the holiest shrines for Shiites. The report was intended to cover the political, security, and social life in Samarra since the attack.
Abbas al-Issawi, director-general of Al-Forat, told CPJ it was not clear whether the crew was deliberately targeted. The satellite channel, established in 2004, is backed by the powerful Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a Shiite political party led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. Al-Fartoosi is survived by his wife and two children.
Shihab al-Tamimi, Iraqi Journalists
Syndicate
February 27, 2008, Baghdad
Al-Tamimi, head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, died of complications from injuries suffered in a targeted shooting in Baghdad on February 23. Jabbar Tarrad al-Shimmari, deputy head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, told CPJ that al-Tamimi, 74, died from a stroke four days after the attack.
Unidentified gunmen in a white Opel intercepted and opened fire on a car carrying al-Tamimi, his son and driver, Rabie, and an unidentified colleague riding in the backseat. The three were on their way from the syndicate's headquarters to a meeting in Baghdad's Al-Waziriya neighborhood, the journalist's nephew, Arfan Jalil Karim, told CPJ. The son was shot several times and hospitalized, Karim told CPJ. The third occupant was not injured, he said.
Al-Tamimi had received prior threats. Al-Shimmari said that al-Tamimi received a threat in 2005 during which the caller told him he would be killed the following day. The journalist went into hiding for a month after that. About six months ago, al-Tamimi received calls both on his cell phone and land line threatening his life, according to Karim.
Al-Tamimi, who headed the syndicate since 2003, had been a critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its continued presence there, according to Reuters. He is survived by his wife and three children.
Jassim
al-Batat, Al-Nakhil TV and Radio
April 25, 2008, Al-Qurna
Al-Batat, a correspondent at Al-Nakhil TV and Radio, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen while walking in the town of Al-Qurna, north of Basra.
Four masked men shot al-Batat six times as he was walking in Al-Qurna market, station head Adnan al-Yasiri told CPJ. Al-Yasiri said he believes that al-Batat was targeted because of his work for the station, which he said supported the government.
Al-Nakhil TV and Radio, which began broadcasting three months after the invasion in 2003, is affiliated with Iraqi Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
According to the station's office manager, Ali Hussein Juda, the station received an e-mail threat during May clashes in Basra between government forces and the Mehdi Army. He said the e-mailer demanded the station stop advocating for the government or it would face attack.
A friend of al-Batat told CPJ that the journalist had expressed concern for his safety because of his job at a "political TV station."
Sarwa
Abdul-Wahab, freelance
May 4, 2008, Mosul
Abdul-Wahab, 36, a freelance journalist and contributor to
the Muraslon news site, was shot
and killed while resisting abduction in the Al-Bakr area of
"We were going shopping when two men in a white car stopped and asked my daughter to get in the car, and when she refused, they started dragging and forcing her to ride in the car," said Amira Wasfi, the journalist's mother. "I was screaming and shouting to leave her alone. They hit me on my head with the end of a machine gun and I fell on the street." When Abdul-Wahab resisted, the men shot her in the leg and then in the head, the mother said. "The neighbors were there watching, but nobody helped me save my daughter," Wasfi said.
A few weeks prior to the killing, Abdul-Wahab received a threatening phone call from a group calling itself the "Islamic State of Iraq" asking her "to quit her activities or else," according to Muraslon Editor-in-Chief Mohamed al-Jebori, whom she had told about the threats.
Abdul-Wahab, who for safety reasons wrote under the pen name Sarwa Darweesh, published critical articles about Iraqi insurgent groups. In an April 24 story on Muraslon's Web site, she discussed efforts by insurgents to intimidate drivers working for a cement factory in Mosul.
An April 26 piece called on the people of
Yasir al-Hamadani, head of the
Ibrahim al-Saraj, head of the Iraqi Journalists Rights
Defense Association, told CPJ that Abdul-Wahab had reported to him that she had
received threatening phone calls two weeks before she was killed, warning her
to quit her job "or else." He and al-Jebori said they had each advised
Abdul-Wahab to leave
Wissam Ali Ouda, Al-Afaq
May 21, 2008, Baghdad
Ouda, 32, a cameraman for Al-Afaq television, was returning home from an assignment at about 5 p.m. when he was shot in the Obaidi district of Baghdad, according to CPJ interviews and news reports.
Station spokeswoman Bushra Abdul-Amir told Reuters that witnesses reported seeing Ouda shot by an "American sniper." A witness interviewed by CPJ said that he believed Ouda was struck by a U.S. military sniper deployed on top of a nearby communications building. The witness spoke on condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns. Al-Afaq correspondent Tariq Maher told Reuters that the shooting occurred during crossfire.
The U.S. military disputed the account. A military spokesman told CPJ that U.S. forces had halted operations in the area at the time of the shooting. "Operational reports indicate that coalition forces conducted these targeted operations between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m. After 9 a.m., our efforts changed to conduct routine patrol of the streets of Baghdad," U.S. Army Lt. Col. Maura A. Gillen said in an e-mail to CPJ.
Haidar al-Hussein, Al-Sharq
May 22, 2008, Buhrez
Al-Hussein, a 37-year-old journalist who worked for the Baghdad-based daily Al-Sharq, was found dead in Buhrez, Diyala province, three days after he was abducted by armed men.
Al-Hussein was seized in the al-Tahrir area of Baqouba while on his way to work at around 8 a.m. Al-Sharq Editor-in-Chief Abdul Rasool Zyara said Al-Hussein's body showed signs of torture and had a bullet wound to the head.
According to Zyara, al-Hussein was kidnapped last year but released after he promised kidnappers that he would leave the city of Baqouba. He went to Baghdad for a time, but returned after the Iraqi government announced that Baqouba had been made safer. He was a Shiite working in a predominantly Sunni area.
"The kidnappers wanted to send a message to those who have the guts to be from an opposing sect yet are able to write reports appreciative of the Iraqi government," Zyara told CPJ. Much of the paper's coverage is pro-government.
Mohieldin al-Naqeeb, Al-Iraqiya
June 17, 2008, north of Mosul
Al-Naqeeb, a 49-year-old journalist working with the local affiliate of state-run Al-Iraqiya TV in
Al-Naqeeb was on his way to work from his home in an agricultural area on the outskirts of
Al-Naqeeb began working for the Al-Iraqiya affiliate in
Soran Mama
Hama, Livin
July 21, 2008, Kirkuk
Mama Hama, 23, a reporter with the Sulaymania-based Livin magazine, was shot by unidentified gunmen in front of his home. He had received threatening messages before the slaying, local journalists told CPJ, and had written articles critical of local authorities.
His last article in Livin
recounted the prevalence of prostitution in
Ahmed Mira, Livin's editor-in-chief,
told CPJ that the slaying was designed to "silence the free voices in
Kirkuk Police Brig. Jamal Tahir told CPJ that the department had launched an investigation. He called it a "serious situation" that would get "special attention."
The shooting occurred at around
The Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate said Mama Hama had received a threatening message from an unidentified person on May 15.
Musab Mahmood
al-Ezawi, Al-Sharqiya
Ahmed Salim, Al-Sharqiya
Ihab Mu'd, Al-Sharqiya
September 13, 2008, Mosul
Senior correspondent al-Ezawi and cameramen Salim and Mu'd were kidnapped along with their driver, Qaydar Sulaiman, while working in the Al-Zanjali district of Mosul, Al-Sharqiya television said in a statement.
Their bodies were later found in Al-Borsa district, a short distance from the kidnapping, a local journalist told CPJ. The journalist said that all the victims were in their 20s.
While five crew members were in a house filming, the three journalists and their driver were kidnapped by armed men, the local journalist told CPJ. The crew was filming a report on a family breaking the Ramadan fast.
The station transferred the five surviving crew members to Arbil, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Mosul, after the attack, the journalist said.
ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY: 1
Fadel Shana,
Reuters
April 16, 2008, Gaza Strip
Cameraman Shana, 23, was killed and soundman Wafa Abu Mizyed was wounded after they stopped their vehicle to film Israeli military forces several hundred feet away, Reuters reported. Shana was using a tripod-mounted camera when an Israeli tank fired on the men. Eight other bystanders, most under the age of 16, were killed.
The Reuters cameraman was wearing a flak jacket marked "Press" and had gotten out of a sport-utility vehicle bearing the markings "TV." A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Reuters: "In our operations we try to be as surgical as possible and make every effort not to see innocent people caught up in the fighting."
The Israeli military's subsequent investigation exonerated the soldiers responsible for the killing, saying that they had acted reasonably. "The tank crew was unable to determine the nature of the object mounted on the tripod and positively identify it as an antitank missile, a mortar, or a television camera," wrote the advocate general, Brig. Gen. Avihai Mendelblit.
Writing in CPJ's magazine Dangerous Assignments, Reuters Bureau Chief Alastair Macdonald responded: "To reach that 'reasonable' decision, the troops failed to note 'TV' signs plastered over his jeep as it drove, twice, along the road they were monitoring through high-tech sights during the preceding half-hour; they affirmed--questionably--that Fadel's body armor was 'common to Palestinian terrorists;' they failed to find the fact he stood in front of them, a mile away, for four minutes an indication that he was not a threat; and they did not consider the 20-odd children playing behind him."
Reuters and CPJ called for an independent investigation into the killing of Shana, saying that the military's conclusion left numerous questions unanswered.
MEXICO: 1
Alejandro
Zenón Fonseca Estrada, EXA FM
September 24, 2008, Villahermosa
Fonseca, host of a morning talk show on the local radio
station EXA FM, was hanging anticrime posters on a major street in
Witnesses said the assailants berated Fonseca and then shot him at close range. Fonseca was taken to a local hospital, where he died from chest wounds early the next morning, according to press reports. The assailants were said to be armed with AR-15 rifles.
Fonseca, known by the affectionate Mexican nickname "The
Godfather," hosted the morning call-in show "El Padrino Fonseca" (The Godfather
Fonseca), geared toward young listeners, for 10 years. Earlier in
September, Fonseca had announced that he planned to put up posters as part of
his ongoing campaign against violence in
The federal attorney general's office said it would join in
the local investigation because of the type of weapon used, local press reports
said. On October 5,
Ricardo López Ortiz, a reputed member of Los Zetas, the enforcement arm of the Gulf drug cartel, was arrested October 30 and charged several days later in the killing.
Alex Alvarez Gutiérrez, deputy prosecutor for the Tabasco attorney general's office, told CPJ that the murder was a direct result of the journalist's anticrime campaign. Gerardo Priego Tapia, who heads a congressional committee on violence against the press, said that Fonseca was outspoken in denouncing violence.
PAKISTAN: 5
Chishti
Mujahid, Akbar-e-Jehan
February 9, 2008, Quetta
An unknown gunman killed Mujahid, a veteran columnist for
the weekly, in a targeted attack outside his home in
Mujahid, who was also a photographer, was struck in the head and chest as he left his house, according to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and local news reports. A spokesman for the banned insurgent group, the Baluch Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for the murder in a phone call to the Quetta Press Club, saying Mujahid was "against" the Baluch cause, local news reports said.
Mujahid, an ethnic Punjabi, had received several telephone
threats after writing about the killing of Baluch leader Balach Marri in
November 2007, according to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists. Akbar-e-Jehan,
published by the Jang Media Group, is one of the largest weekly Urdu-language
magazines in
Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province in southwestern Pakistan, where ethnic Baluch militants were engaged in protracted combat with government forces for political autonomy and local resources.
Siraj Uddin, The Nation
February 29, 2008, Mingora
Uddin died in a suicide bombing that took the lives of more than 40 people, according to Pakistani news reports. The attack occurred at the funeral of a slain police officer.
No organization claimed responsibility for the attack, which also wounded about 80 people, according to news reports. Pakistani reporters told CPJ that two other journalists were wounded: Hazrat Bilal of the local newspaper Shawal; and Munawar Afridi of the English-language Dawn.
Mohammed Ibrahim,
Express TV and Daily Express
May 22, 2008, Khar
Ibrahim, a reporter for Express TV, was gunned down by
unknown men outside Khar, the main town of the Bajaur tribal area in
Reuters quoted a local journalist saying the attackers took Ibrahim's camera. They also took footage of the interview, Ali told CPJ by e-mail, after speaking with local reporters. Ali said that Ibrahim also worked for the Urdu-language Daily Express.
Bajaur is part of the restive Federally Administered Tribal Areas of the North West Frontier Province, where local authorities and international Afghanistan-based military forces were fighting with militant groups for control.
Abdul Aziz
Shaheen, Azadi
August 29, 2008, Swat
A Pakistani airstrike hit the lockup where Shaheen was being
held by a local Taliban group in the
Militants abducted Shaheen, who worked for the local Urdu-language daily Azadi and sometimes filed for other papers, on August 27, according to local news reports. A local press freedom group, the Pakistan Press Foundation, said the Taliban had been angered by reports Shaheen had written about their activities. Owais Aslam Ali, the press foundation's secretary-general, told CPJ that local journalists contacted by his organization believed the Taliban abducted the journalist because of his work.
Shaheen's car was set on fire a week before he was abducted, although it was not clear whether the Taliban were responsible for that attack, the group reported. It said the journalist was kidnapped from the Peuchar area of the Matta Tehsil subdivision of Swat.
Abdul Razzak Johra, Royal TV
November 3, 2008, Punjab
Six armed men dragged reporter Johra from his home in the Mianwali district of Punjab and shot him, according to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). The attack came a day after his report on local drug trafficking was aired nationally. Colleagues said Johra, 45, who had done earlier reports on the drug trade, had received threats telling him to stop covering the issue.
Mianwali, though technically part of Punjab, is historically
linked to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan that lie along
the border with
Martin Roxas, DYVR
August 7, 2008, Roxas City
Two men shot Roxas in the back as he drove his motorcycle from DYVR in
Dennievin Macaranas, an operations head at Radio Mindanao Network, which includes DYVR, told CPJ that Roxas had been threatened in relation to his work. Roxas covered various political issues in his show, and police told reporters they are investigating his recent coverage. Agence France-Presse quoted a manager at the station's parent network as saying that Roxas had recently reported on a dispute between two local politicians. The report did not elaborate. Roxas also recently broadcast a report on misappropriation of city funds, according to The Associated Press.
Roxas told his colleagues that a group of men attacked him a week before his death, news reports said, but it was not clear if the attack was related to his work or to his murder.
Dennis Cuesta, DXMD
August 9, 2008, General Santos City
Two gunmen traveling by motorcycle fired several shots at Cuesta, a program director and anchor for DXMD, an affiliate of the Radio Mindanao Network, on a public street in General Santos City on August 4, according to news reports citing police.
Cuesta sustained multiple injuries, including a gunshot wound to the head, and died in a local hospital five days later, the reports said. A companion at the scene was unhurt, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). The Associated Press quoted an official saying there were three gunmen.
Cuesta's colleague, Mel Coronel, told AP that the journalist never recovered consciousness and died while in intensive care.
Local press freedom groups told CPJ they believe Cuesta was targeted for his reporting. Cuesta had been threatened in relation to his recent broadcasts, according to Dennievin Macaranas, a network operations manager who spoke with CPJ by telephone. The commentator had also recently applied for a firearm license and requested police protection, DPA reported. Police Superintendent Robert Po told DPA that a person involved in a land dispute had asked Cuesta to stop broadcasting critical commentaries about the case on the public affairs show he hosted.
Magomed Yevloyev, Ingushetiya
August 31, 2008, Nazran
Yevloyev, 37, owner of the popular news Web site Ingushetiya, was killed in police custody. Yevloyev died from a gunshot wound to the head sustained while being transported by Ingushetia police following his arrest at the airport in the regional capital, Magas. Ingushetia police immediately called the shooting an accident, saying Yevloyev had tried to take a gun from one of the arresting officers. Yevloyev's relatives, colleagues, and friends told CPJ they believe he was murdered to silence the Web site, one of the few remaining independent news sources in Ingushetia.
Yevloyev had just gotten off a flight from Moscow when he was arrested at about 1:30 p.m., according to a colleague who was
present at the scene but asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal.
Yevloyev, who lived in
Shortly before leaving the plane, Yevloyev sent a text message to Magomed Khazbiyev, a friend and local opposition activist, telling him that he had shared the flight with Ingushetia President Murat Zyazikov, the friend told CPJ. After the presidential cortege left the airport, six armored vehicles approached the plane, Khazbiyev said. A group of armed police officers approached Yevloyev and placed him in a UAZ van. "They did not handcuff him, and he did not resist them," Khazbiyev told CPJ.
The daily Kommersant reported that Ingushetia police said they had detained Yevloyev as a witness in a criminal investigation into an August explosion at the home of a regional administration official.
When they saw Yevloyev had been detained, Khazbiyev said, friends followed the vehicles in their own cars. After the police vehicles left the airport, they split into two columns and took different directions. Khazbiyev and Yevloyev's relatives and friends followed the group heading toward Ingushetia's main city, Nazran. "We followed them for about 20 minutes until we almost reached Nazran's city limits," Khazbiyev told CPJ. When the cars stopped, it became clear Yevloyev was not there. "We have no blood on our hands," one police officer told them, Khazbiyev told CPJ.
Ingushetia police said that shortly after the journalist was placed in one of their vans, Yevloyev tried to wrestle away a gun belonging to one of the arresting officers. The gun went off, police said, striking Yevloyev in the temple. Police brought Yevloyev to a Nazran hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Vladimir Markin, a spokesman with the investigative committee of Russia's prosecutor general's office, told journalists in September 2008 that a criminal case has been opened and the case has been categorized as "murder by negligence." The statement left unclear whether regional or federal prosecutors would be in charge of the probe.
Yevloyev's Web site was well-known to human rights and press freedom groups in Russia and abroad as a reliable source for information in the tightly controlled republic of Ingushetia in Russia's restive North Caucasus region. Ingushetiya had reported on governmental corruption, human rights abuses, unemployment, and a string of unsolved disappearances and killings in recent months. The site covered antigovernment protests and had called for Zyazikov's resignation.
On June 6, a district court in
In August, Ingushetiya Editor-in-Chief
Roza Malsagova fled Russia after enduring harassment, threats, and beatings at the
hands of Ingushetia authorities. Faced with a politically motivated criminal
case on charges of "incitement of ethnic hatred" and "distribution of extremist
materials," Malsagova sought asylum in
Yevloyev is survived by a wife and three young children.
Telman Alishayev,
TV-Chirkei
September 2, 2008, Makhachkala
Two unidentified assassins killed Alishayev, host of the
program "Peace to Your Home," which was broadcast by TV-Chirkei in
In 2006, Alishayev was the main producer of a documentary
titled "Ordinary Wahhabism," which criticized the conservative Sunni Islam sect
and its recent spread in
In his most recent programs, Alishayev promoted educational reform and lobbied for gender separation in Dagestan's schools, local press reports said. Alishayev also advocated for the introduction of religious education in high schools. Although addressing social issues, most of Alishayev's work was on religion, CPJ sources in the region said.
Arsen Akhmedov, a spokesman for the
Hassan Kafi Hared, Somali
National News Agency
January 28, 2008, Kismayo
Hared, 38, a reporter for the Somali National News Agency,
was killed during a
A remotely detonated landmine destroyed a Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland vehicle, killing two aid workers and the driver. Guards with the aid organization opened fire in the area after the explosion, local journalists told CPJ.
Hared and a young boy who were walking near the vehicle also died, local journalists told CPJ. It was not clear whether Hared died from the explosion or from gunshot wounds; both bullet and mine shrapnel wounds were found on his body, local journalists said.
Hared, who also worked for the news Web site Gedonet, was on his way to a press
conference at the Kismayo police station when he was killed. The reporter was
rushed to
Nasteh Dahir Farah,
freelance
June 7, 2008, Kismayo
Farah, 27, vice president of the National Union of Somali Journalists and a contributor to several local and international news outlets, was shot by two men in Kismayo as he walked home from an Internet café at around 7 p.m., local journalists told CPJ. Farah was rushed to a local hospital but died within minutes from blood loss, the journalist union reported.
In a follow-up report, the union said Farah had been killed by insurgents in reprisal for his work. Farah had been reporting on a conflict over distribution of tax revenue in Kismayo, Abdi Aynte, a correspondent for the BBC, told CPJ.
The slaying came a day after Farah expressed fear for his life amid escalating insecurity in Kismayo. "I do not know if I can work in this hostile environment anymore. I am so scared," Farah told an Agence France-Presse reporter one day before his murder.
The journalist is survived by his wife, who was six months pregnant at the time of the killing, and a son.
Just weeks before his death, Farah contributed a piece to CPJ's magazine, Dangerous Assignments, recounting the killing of Somali National News Agency reporter Hassan Kafi Hared.
Paranirupasingham Devakumar,
News 1st
May 28, 2008, Jaffna
Devakumar, Jaffna correspondent for the independent channel News 1st, was stabbed to death when he was attacked by supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), according to Sunanda Deshapriya, spokesman for local press freedom group the Free Media Movement.
Deshapriya said that FMM's investigations had shown that Devakumar was killed by Tamil Tiger supporters in retribution for critical reporting on LTTE activities in the area. Deshapriya also noted the journalist had covered a government-sponsored rally that the LTTE had wanted him to avoid.
The group also killed Mahendran Warden, a friend of the journalist who was traveling with him by motorbike in the government-controlled area, according to a report published on the News 1st Web site. Devakumar and Warden were returning home in the evening when the attack occurred, news reports said. Warden was the son of a leading member of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, a Tamil party working with the government, Deshapriya said.
Devakumar was one of the few remaining journalists reporting from the peninsula, a focal point in the civil war between the predominantly Sinhalese government and the LTTE, which claims territory for an ethnic Tamil homeland. Conflict worsened in recent years, and a 2002 cease-fire agreement was abandoned in January 2008.
Rashmi Mohamed,
Sirasa TV
October 6, 2008, Anuradhapura
Mohamed, a provincial correspondent for Sirasa TV, was
covering the opening ceremony of the new office of the United National Party
(UNP) in
The blast apparently came from a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) inside the newly opened and crowded office of the opposition UNP. The target appeared to be retired Maj. Gen. Janaka Perera, who died in the blast. At least 27 people died, and at least 80 more were wounded in the explosion.
Security was apparently lax at the event. UNP officials quoted by The Associated Press accused the government of ignoring repeated requests for a stronger security detail for Perera, who was a vocal critic of the way the government had conducted its military campaign against the LTTE secessionists. "The government must take full responsibility. They did not give him adequate security for political reasons," AP quoted party official Tissa Attanayake as saying.
THAILAND: 3
Athiwat
Chaiyanurat, Matichon, Channel
7
August 1, 2008, Chaiyamontri
A reporter with the Thai-language daily newspaper Matichon and a stringer for the army-owned television station Channel 7, Athiwat was found dead in his home in the town of Chaiyamontri in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Police investigators quoted in the local media said the
reporter was shot twice, in the back and in the head, and that his murder took
place while he was cooking in his kitchen at home at around
Matichon News Editor Kaweesak Bhutton told CPJ that the newspaper considered the slaying to be work-related. Athiwat had told Kaweesak that influential officials in Nakhon Si Thammarat province were "dissatisfied" with his reporting on local corruption issues. In the weeks leading up to the slaying, safety concerns had led Athiwat to avoid leaving the house except for reporting assignments, Kaweesak said. The Thai Journalists Association, a local press freedom group, also said in a statement that Athiwat's murder was likely related to his recent reporting.
Athiwat's wife and son were not home at the time of the
killing, local news reports said. Nakhon Si Thammarat is known for drug
trafficking and a high crime rate. Apart from the insurgent-hit areas in
Chalee
Boonsawat, Thai Rath
August 21, 2008, Sungai Kolok
Chalee, a reporter with the country's biggest Thai-language
daily, was killed while covering an explosion in restive southern
Chalee was killed by a car bomb that apparently targeted
people arriving at the scene of a blast that occurred minutes earlier in the
town of
A reporter with Channel 9, Phadung Wannalak, was seriously injured in the blast. A rescue worker also died of his wounds, the reports said.
Many in
Jaruek Rangcharoen, Matichon
September 27, 2008, Don Chedi district
Jaruek, a reporter with the Thai-language newspaper Matichon, was shot and killed in a market in the Don Chedi district of Thailand's western Suphanburi province, according to the Thai Journalists Association, a local press freedom advocacy group.
The association said in a statement that Jaruek had reported on local corruption and had expressed concerns to provincial Gov. Somsak Phurisrisak that he might face reprisal. Kaweesak Bhutton, Jaruek's supervising editor, told CPJ that Matichon staffers believe the death was related to his work as a journalist, including his reports on local government corruption.
Two men were arrested on November 1 in connection with the murder, according to the Bangkok Post.
BULGARIA: 1
Georgi Stoev,
freelance
April 7, 2008, Sofia
Two unidentified men shot Stoev, author of a popular series of books on the rise of Bulgaria's criminal underworld after the fall of communism. Stoev, 35, was walking on a busy street near the Pliska Hotel in Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, when the assailants shot him at close range, the independent news Web site Mediapool reported. Stoev was taken to Pirogov Hospital, where he underwent surgery but died later that day. The assailants fled the scene.
According to local news reports, Stoev was a former bodyguard and a retired member of the notorious racketeering group VIS, which extorted money from private businesses. He wrote nine books, all chronicling the history of organized crime. One, The BG Godfather: The Real Story of Madzho, detailed the activities of crime boss Mladen Mikhalev, also known as Madzho. According to the independent news site Sofia Echo, Stoev told several Bulgarian interviewers that he was willing to testify that Mikhalev had directed him to carry out murders. Stoev claimed he did not follow through on the assignments.
Stoev's publisher, Nedyalko Nedyalkov, said on April 7 that he believed the writer was killed "by his characters," local press reports said. The Bulgarian news agency Novinite said Stoev presented Nedyalkov with a copy of his book The BG Godfather and said: "I give you this book, for which I will be killed." Sofia City Prosecutor Nikolai Kokinov told television channel bTV that authorities had offered Stoev "every possible protection as legislated by the code of criminal procedure," but the writer had refused.
Didace Namujimbo, Radio
Okapi
November 21, 2008,
Bukavu
Namujimbo, a reporter for U.N.-sponsored Radio Okapi, was shot at close range near his home around 9:30 p.m. in Bukavu, capital city of the eastern province of South Kivu.
Bukavu prosecutor Jacques Melimeli told Radio Okapi that the journalist was struck once in the neck. The journalist's brother, Déo Namujimbo, the local vice-president of the Congolese National Press Union, told CPJ that the victim's cell phone was missing but cash was left in his wallet. Neighbors allegedly heard a heated exchange between the journalist and gunmen shortly before the shooting, according to news reports. Namujimbo had not reported any threats, according to local journalists.
In December, Melimeli announced the case was being given over to a military court because the murder weapon was a Kalashnikov rifle. Magistrate Capt. Dieudonné Kabemba told CPJ that the court was questioning people of interest.
Namujimbo, 34, was the second Radio Okapi journalist murdered in unclear circumstances in Bukavu in 16 months. Serge Maheshe, 31, was gunned down in June 2007.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: 1
Normando García Reyes,
Teleunión
August 7, 2008, Santiago
Unidentified individuals shot and killed García, a cameraman for the daily news program "Detrás de la Noticia" (Behind the News) and producer of the music program "Pachanga Mix" on television station Teleunión, in the city of Santiago, 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of the capital, Santo Domingo.
At around
García was shot five times in the head, four times in the chest, and once in the leg, said Esteban Rosario, host of "Detrás de la Noticia." García, known locally as Azabache, covered drug trafficking and crime. A taxi driver García was speaking with at the time of the shooting was also killed.
García had received multiple death threats in the previous eight
months, according to journalists in
GUATEMALA: 2
Jorge Mérida Pérez, Prensa
Libre
May 10, 2008, Coatepeque
At
Miguel Ángel Méndez, Prensa Libre's deputy director, said the journalist had reported on local drug trafficking and government corruption.
In the weeks prior to his death, Mérida told colleagues and family members that he had received multiple threats, Méndez told CPJ. But the journalist did not seem overly concerned about the threats and did not give any more details, according to Méndez. Brenda Dery Muñoz, a local prosecutor for crimes related to drug trafficking, told CPJ that Mérida and other reporters had been threatened after covering a police seizure of 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of cocaine.
Rosa Salazar Marroquín, spokeswoman for the office of the special prosecutor for crimes against journalists and union members, told CPJ that the prosecutor was investigating possible links between Mérida's death and his journalism.
Abel Girón Morales, El Periódico
October 22, 2008,
Guatemala City
Girón, a graphic designer for the national daily El Periódico, died outside his home in Guatemala City after being shot with an arrow. Witnesses quoted in El Periódico said the arrow was fired from a black SUV that had been parked in front of Girón's Guatemala City home for at least three hours.
The journalist was struck in the heart and died at the scene, according to local news reports and CPJ interviews. Local authorities told reporters they would not make leads public because it could damage the investigation.
Two El Periódico journalists survived violent attacks in the months prior to Girón's death. It was unclear whether the newspaper was targeted or caught up in the widespread violence in Guatemala's capital, according to CPJ research.
INDIA: 1
Jagjit Saikia, Amar
Asom
November 20, 2008,
Kokrajhar
Unidentified assailants shot Saikia several times at
point-blank range near his office in the town of
Saikia worked as district correspondent for the vernacular daily Amar Asom, based in Assam's capital, Guwahati, according to Nava Thakuria, secretary of the Guwahati Press Club, who spoke with CPJ by telephone. Saikia was shot at least five times in the chest, according to local news reports.
Saikia frequently wrote about rivalries between armed groups and political organizations fighting over control of Kokrajhar and neighboring western districts of Assam that have a predominantly ethnic Bodo population, Thakuria said. Insurgents have sought, at times violently, a separate Bodo state, according to published reports.
IRAQ: 3
Hisham Mijawet Hamdan, Young Journalists Association
February 12, 2008, Baghdad
Police discovered the body of Hamdan, 27, a board member of the Young Journalists Association, according to Haidar Hasoun, founder and head of the association. He told CPJ that the journalist was shot in the head and chest, and that the body showed signs of torture.
Hamdan's family lost contact with him on the morning of
February 10 when he went to buy stationery supplies from a
Hamdan was active in an association campaign to support
families of journalists killed in
Hamdan worked as a political reporter for the bimonthly paper Al-Siyassa al-Karar, published by the Young Journalists Association. The paper had recently halted production of its print edition but had maintained an online version, according to Hasoun, the editor-in-chief.
The Young Journalists Association was launched in January
2004 and held journalism seminars in cooperation with
Qassim Abdul Hussein al-Iqabi, Al-Muwatin
March 13, 2008, Baghdad
Al-Iqabi, 36, of the local daily Al-Muwatin
(The Citizen) was shot and killed in
The board of the daily Al-Muwatin was headed by Ibrahim Bahr Al-Uloom, the former oil minister and a Shiite member of parliament, Iraqi journalists told CPJ.
Dyar Abas Ahmed, Eye Iraq
October 10, 2008,
Kirkuk
Ahmed, a correspondent for the independent online news site Eye Iraq, was killed by unidentified gunmen in Kirkuk, about 140 miles (220 kilometers) north of Baghdad, according to Kirkuk police.
Ahmed, 28, was walking with a friend in the center of Kirkuk when he was attacked, Kirkuk Police Chief Sarhad Qadir told CPJ. He said Ahmed was shot six times in the head and chest. Qadir said the motive was not clear.
KENYA: 1
Trent Keegan,
freelance
May 28, 2008, Nairobi
Keegan, a New Zealand-born photojournalist was found dead in
a trench next to
Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told CPJ that investigators believed Keegan was killed in a robbery attempt. Police said that Keegan's camera and laptop were missing, but his wallet, with 3,848 Kenyan shillings (US$48), was left intact. Police arrested two men; one was acquitted at trial and the other continued to face charges in late year.
The photographer, last seen at 9:30 p.m. on May 27 after visiting a friend, was found with multiple injuries to the back of the head. According to colleagues who visited the crime scene, Keegan's body had been dragged into a concealed area in the ditch.
Some friends and colleagues were skeptical of the robbery
motive. Several told CPJ that an external hard drive and discs--which Keegan would
have used for his work--were not on the police inventory of items found in the
journalist's
Prior to his death, Keegan had told friends via e-mail that
he was investigating a land dispute in northern
Keegan had lived in western
MEXICO: 4
Teresa Bautista Merino, La Voz que Rompe el Silencio
Felicitas Martínez Sánchez, La Voz que Rompe el Silencio
April 7, 2008, Putla de Guerrero
Unidentified individuals shot Bautista, 24, and Martínez, 20, hosts and reporters for the community radio station La Voz que Rompe el Silencio (The Voice That Breaks the Silence), as they were driving on a rural highway in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.
The station, based in the Triqui indigenous town of San Juan Copala, 220 miles (350 kilometers) west of the state capital of Oaxaca, had begun broadcasting in Spanish and Triqui on January 19. Jorge Albino, general coordinator of the station, told CPJ that Bautista and Martínez reported on the autonomous indigenous government of San Juan Copala, as well as health, education, and indigenous cultural issues. The two women were also indigenous activists, CPJ research found.
Albino said the two were coming from a neighboring Triqui town, where they were promoting the station, when unidentified individuals armed with assault rifles ambushed their car. Three others in the vehicle, including a 3-year-old child, were injured, local news reports said.
The
Miguel Angel Villagómez Valle, La Noticia de Michoacán
October 10, 2008, between Lázaro Cárdenas and Zihuatanejo
Villagómez, editor and founder of the local daily La Noticia de Michoacán, went missing in Lázaro Cárdenas, a port city on the southern Pacific coast of Michoacán, at about 10:30 p.m. on October 9 after leaving the newspaper's offices to drop two colleagues off at their homes, according to CPJ interviews with local law enforcement authorities and Villagómez's colleagues and wife.
State police found the journalist's bruised and gunshot-riddled body at about 6 a.m. the following day in a garbage dump near a coastal highway in the neighboring state of Guerrero, about 31 miles (50 kilometers) from Lázaro Cárdenas, where the journalist lived. His car was not recovered. La Noticia de Michoacán is a small regional tabloid that regularly covers crime and politics, along with sports and culture.
Villagómez's relatives and colleagues told CPJ that they were uncertain about the motive for the killing. They noted that about one month before his death, Villagómez mentioned receiving a threatening call on his cell phone. He told them the caller was a member of Los Zetas, the enforcement arm of the powerful Gulf drug cartel. He warned his family to be alert, his wife, Irania Iveth Leyva Faustino, told CPJ.
State police did not announce any suspects or investigative leads. Villagómez, 29, is survived by his wife and three young children.
Armando Rodríguez, El Diario
November 13, 2008, Ciudad Juárez
An unidentified assailant shot Rodríguez, 40, a veteran crime reporter for the local daily El Diario, at least eight times with a 9mm weapon, according to Mexican news reports and CPJ interviews. Rodríguez was sitting in a company-owned Nissan sedan parked in his driveway about 8 a.m. when he was shot, local authorities told CPJ. His 8-year-old daughter, Ximena, who was in the car at the time of the attack, was uninjured. According to Jaime Torres Baladez, the mayor's spokesman, the reporter was pronounced dead at the scene.
Pedro Torres, El Diario's deputy editor, said Rodríguez had received a threatening text message in February telling him to "tone it down." Rocío Gallegos, news director at the daily, told CPJ she asked Rodríguez if he wanted to change his beat, but the reporter insisted on continuing to cover crime. For safety reasons, Torres said, El Diario does not conduct in-depth investigations into organized crime or drug trafficking.
Local journalists told CPJ they believed Rodríguez had been targeted for his work, although they could not pinpoint a specific story that might have triggered the killing. Carlos Huerta Múñoz, a crime reporter for the Ciudad Juárez-based daily El Norte, said he and Rodríguez had recently covered the murder of two local police officers. Huerta said Rodríguez had not mentioned any threats.
The attorney general's office in the state of
NEPAL: 1
Jagat Prasad Joshi, Janadisha
October 8, 2008, Kailali district
Joshi, a Maoist activist and editor with the daily Janadisha, was reported missing in the western district of Kailali on October 8. In late November, local newspapers reported that a mission headed by the Federation of Nepali Journalists had discovered a body and the editor's belongings in a remote forest. Joshi's family identified the remains as those of the journalist, according to local news reports.
News reports said he may have been murdered in connection with an article about Maoist intraparty disputes. Janadisha was described as Maoist affiliated. Bahadur Mahara, the minister for information and communications, said a commission had been formed to investigate the murder, according to Kantipur online.
PAKISTAN: 1
Khadim Hussain Sheikh,
Sindh TV and Khabrein
April 14, 2008, Hub
Sheikh, a stringer for Sindh TV and local bureau chief for the national Urdu-language daily Khabrein, was killed by unidentified gunmen as he left his home by motorbike in the town of Hub, 23 miles (37 kilometers) north of Karachi, according to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the Associated Press of Pakistan.
Mazhar Abbas, secretary-general of the PFUJ, told CPJ he had spoken by telephone with Sheikh's brother, Ishaq, who was riding on the same motorbike at the time of the attack and had been hospitalized with gunshot wounds. Ishaq said three men on motorbikes carried out the shooting, then checked to make sure his brother was dead before fleeing the scene, according to Abbas. Ishaq said he was unaware of any personal dispute that might have led to Sheikh's murder, Abbas said.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rehman called for a probe into the murder, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.
PHILIPPINES: 3
Benefredo Acabal, The Filipino Newsmen
April 7, 2008, Pasig City
Acabal, 34, was shot several times at close range
by an unidentified gunman in
Acabal wrote a column for the local newspaper The
Filipino Newsmen in
Arecio Padrigao, DXRS
November 17, 2008,
Gingoog
A motorcycle-riding gunman shot radio commentator Padrigao outside
CPJ is investigating the union's report that Padrigao had received recent death threats in connection with his radio program "Sayre ang Katilingban" (Know the Society) on DXRS, a local affiliate of Radyo Natin. The commentator had criticized corruption and illegal logging in his broadcasts, news reports said. Police told journalists they were still investigating the motive for the murder.
Padrigao leased airtime under a practice known as block-timing, in which commentators also solicit their own advertisers. A number of block-time broadcasters have been killed in recent years.
Leo Mila, Radyo
Natin
December 2, 2008, San
Roque
Radio commentator Mila was shot outside Radyo Natin studios in the town of San Roque, Northern Samar province, according to local press freedom groups and international news reports. Employees alerted police after hearing gunfire and finding Mila's abandoned motorcycle still running outside, according to the Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. The journalist's body was found with multiple gunshot wounds at the scene, the center said in a statement.
Mila had told police he had received recent death threats, according to the center. Local news reports said his hard-hitting shows tackled sensitive political issues. He had recently reported on irregular funding issues affecting a local high school, according to The Associated Press.
RUSSIA: 2
Gadzhi Abashilov, Dagestan
March 21, 2008, Makhachkala
Abashilov, 58, head of the state radio and television
company Dagestan, was shot and killed at around 8 p.m. local time, in
Dagestan's capital,
According to the government-run
In a September meeting with the heads of local law enforcement agencies, Dagestan's president, Mukhu Aliyev, said he was dissatisfied with the investigation, according to local press reports. Aliyev chastised investigators for what he saw as sloppy work, and he disputed reports of progress, RIA Novosti said. Aliyev said that the motives for Abashilov's murder were unknown, despite the prosecutor's statements. Aliyev claimed the prosecution's evidence was based on a single witness, the independent regional news Web site Kavkazsky Uzel reported.
Ilyas Shurpayev, Channel One
March 21, 2008, Moscow
Firefighters responding to an emergency call found
Shurpayev, 32, dead in his rented
The prosecutor general's office opened a murder investigation. According to initial press reports, authorities ruled out robbery as a motive because Shurpayev's valuables, including his laptop, had not been taken. Investigators initially said they were looking at Shurpayev's journalism as a possible motive, along with unspecified private matters, Channel One reported on March 21. Channel One representatives declined to comment when contacted by CPJ.
According to local press reports, Shurpayev had moved to
Hours before his death, Shurpayev wrote in his personal blog that the owners of a newspaper in Dagestan--later identified in the local press as Nastoyashcheye Vremya (The Real Time)--had refused to publish a column Shurpayev had written and had instructed staff to not mention his name in publications. "Now I am a dissident!" was the blog entry's title.
According to the independent news Web site Lenta,
Shurpayev called his building's concierge around
A week after his death, several Russian newspapers reported that up to 100,000 Russian rubles (about US$3,570) was missing from Shurpayev's apartment. Subsequent reports gave conflicting amounts; the independent business daily Kommersant said on March 31 that the missing sum was 1 million rubles (US$35,700) and that it represented the journalist's savings for an apartment purchase. Prosecutors were looking at robbery as the leading motive, Channel One reported on March 31. Shurpayev's friends and relatives disputed reports about the money, saying the journalist never kept large sums in his apartment, the independent news Web site Lenta reported.
On March 27, the news agency Interfax reported that a
security camera in Shurpayev's apartment building had captured images of two
men in their 20s. According to Interfax, investigators traced one man's mobile
phone to
Pierre Fould Gerges, Reporte
Diario de la Economía
June 2, 2008, Caracas
Unidentified gunmen killed Gerges, vice president of the
The killing occurred shortly after Gerges left the paper's
offices at
Venezuelan authorities said they were conducting an investigation. Soarez told CPJ that investigators did not immediately cite a motive but were looking into Gerges' work as a possibility.
CROATIA: 1
Niko Franjic, Nacional
October 23, 2008, Zagreb
Franjic, marketing director of the Zagreb-based political weekly Nacional, and Ivo Pukanic, the owner and editorial director, were killed when a bomb placed under the editor's car exploded outside the paper's offices, according to press reports and CPJ sources. Local press reports said Pukanic and Franjic were close to the car when the blast took place. Nacional often exposed corruption, organized crime, and human rights abuses, local sources told CPJ.
Croatian authorities moved swiftly to pursue the killers. On October 24, The Associated Press quoted Prime Minister Ivo Sanader as saying that authorities "will fight organized crime or terrorism--whatever is behind this murder--to its very end." On November 1, Croatian police announced that they had charged five suspects in connection with the murder.
In addition, police spokesman Krunoslav Borovec said investigators were working with Bosnian authorities to track down the suspect whom they believe planted the bomb. Local press reports identified the suspect as Zeljko Milovanovic, a Bosnian Serb and former member of a Serbian paramilitary group called the Red Berets. He held both Croatian and Bosnian passports, according to the independent Serbian broadcaster B92. According to Reuters, Bosnian police raided Milovanovic's house in the northern Bosnian town of Doboj on October 31, but he was not at home.
Alaa Aasi, Al-Forat
January 29, 2008, Balad
Aasi, a driver, and Alaa Abdul-Karim al-Fartoosi, a cameraman, were killed by a roadside bomb as they entered the town of Balad, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Baghdad, at around 6:15 p.m., according to the director of external relations for the channel, Mihssen Mohammad Hussein.
The driver and cameraman were traveling with correspondent
Hussein said the crew was filming a report to commemorate the second anniversary of the bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra.
Abbas al-Issawi, director-general of Al-Forat, told CPJ it was not clear whether the crew was deliberately targeted. The satellite channel, established in 2004, is backed by the powerful Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a Shiite political party led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.
Qaydar Sulaiman,
Al-Sharqiya
September 13, 2008, Mosul
Sulaiman, a driver, and three Al-Sharqiya journalists were killed
shortly after they were kidnapped while filming a show in Al-Zanjali district
in
Their bodies were later found in Al-Borsa district, a short distance from the kidnapping, a local journalist told CPJ. The journalist said that all the victims were in their 20s.
While five crew members were in the house filming, the three journalists and their driver were kidnapped by armed men, the local journalist told CPJ. The station transferred the five surviving crew members to Arbil, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Mosul the same day, the journalist said.
The crew was filming a report on a family breaking the Ramadan fast.
