CPJ research indicates that the following individuals have been killed in 2009 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.
Total Confirmed Cases for 2009: 25
COLOMBIA: 1
José Everardo Aguilar, Radio Súper and Bolívar
Estéreo
April 24, 2009, Patía
A man posing as a delivery person entered Aguilar's home in
southwestern
Aguilar, 72, was a correspondent for Radio Súper in the southern
city of
Martín Aguilar, the journalist's son, told CPJ that Aguilar had received death threats two years ago, but he did not know of any recent ones. Hoyos said Aguilar had not relayed any threats to him.
Local and national authorities are investigating the killing,
Col. Luis Joaquín Camacho, commander of the
February 11, 2009,
A local politician and nine accomplices killed Prabangsa, a 41-year-old
reporter with the Indonesian-language Radar Bali daily, on the provincial
Prabangsa's family and colleagues declared him missing on February 12. His body was found floating west of the Padangbai harbor four days later, news reports said. The journalist had received threatening calls and text messages on his cell phone two weeks before he disappeared, the director of Radar Bali, Justin Herman, told CPJ.
Following a police investigation, local news reports said I
Nyoman Susrama, a legislative council member for the district of Bangli, a
large city in eastern
Later Prabangsa was taken 32 miles (51 kilometers) to the
small coastal town of
Police arrested Susrama along with seven others for the murder on May 24, according to The Jakarta Globe. Two more arrests followed. The politician and three suspects, Komang Wardana, Komang Gede and Nyoman Rencana, are accused of planning and executing the assassination. If convicted for premeditated murder they face a possible death sentence, the Globe reported. Six others are accused of playing a minor role in the killing, news reports said.
IRAQ: 3
Haidar Hashim Suhail, Al-Baghdadia TV
Suhaib Adnan, Al-Baghdadia TV
March 10, 2009, Abu Ghraib
Suhail, 30, Adnan, 25, and a group of journalists were accompanying Brigadier General Mard Abdul Hassan, head of the Tribal Affairs division at the Ministry of Interior, to a tribal reconciliation gathering in Abu Ghraib. They were interviewing residents when the suicide bomber, wearing a military uniform, detonated himself, cameraman Raid Qassim told CPJ.Four more journalists suffered injuries in the attack. Ibrahim al-Katib, correspondent with the state-run Al-Iraqiya TV, was seriously injured in the head, suffered internal bleeding, and underwent surgery at al-Yarmuk hospital in Baghdad, his colleagues told CPJ. Qassim, assistant cameraman Uday Munzir, and driver Fawzi Aidan, all working with Al-Iraqiya, also suffered minor injuries, Qassim told CPJ.
Alaa Abdel-Wahab Al-Baghdadia TV
May 31, 2009,
Alaa Abdel-Wahab, a sports journalist with the Cairo-based Al-Baghdadia television station, died from injuries sustained from a bomb planted in his car in
The bomb also wounded Sultan Jerjis, a sports presenter with the local radio station Al-Rasheed,
Abdel-Wahab and Jerjis, who were on assignment to conduct a story on the local Olympic committee, had just finished eating lunch and were getting into Abdel-Wahab's car when the bomb exploded, according to AP. It was not clear why the two were targeted.
Abdel-Wahab, 37, was severely wounded and was rushed to the city's main hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Jerjis suffered minor wounds to his legs.|
ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY: 1
Basil Ibrahim Faraj, Palestinian Media and Communication Company
January 7, 2009, Gaza
Faraj, a 22-year-old cameraman, was among a four-member television crew injured when their car was damaged by an attack in Gaza, according to regional news reports. The crew was not the target of the attack, but was hit by shrapnel and debris from the raid, the reports said.
Faraj's crew had just completed an interview near Al-Wa'd Association for Prisoners, a Hamas-affiliated charitable organization dedicated to supporting Palestinians in Israeli captivity, when the association's building came under Israeli attack, Atif Issa, director general of the Palestinian Media and Communication Company, told CPJ. The crew, employed by the media company, was on assignment for Algerian TV.
All four crew members suffered injuries, but Faraj was most critically wounded. Faraj sustained a severe head injury and entered a coma while in transit to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. He was later transferred to a hospital in Egypt where he was pronounced dead on January 7, according to the news reports.
KENYA: 1
Francis Nyaruri, Weekly Citizen
January 29, 2009,
Nyaruri, a reporter for the private Weekly Citizen who wrote
under the name Mong'are Mokua, went missing on January 15, according to local
journalists and relatives. His decapitated body was found two weeks later, on
January 29, in the
Nyaruri left his residence in Nyamira at about 7:30 a.m. on January 15 to travel about 20 miles (30 kilometers) to Kisii to purchase construction materials, local journalists reported. Kwamboka told reporters that she spoke with her husband at around 11 a.m. that day but did not hear from him again.
According to the Weekly Citizen, Nyaruri had written stories accusing top police officers of fraud in a construction project. Local journalists told CPJ that officers had threatened Nyaruri in response to the articles.
Two suspects were taken into police custody in May but were later released without explanation, according to a local journalist.
Three local journalists who interviewed Robert Natwoli, the chief investigative officer, said they were told Nyaruri was killed on orders of high-ranking officers in Nyanza province. Andrew Mandi, a lawyer for the Nyaruri family, told CPJ that he had spoken with the two suspects and had reached the same conclusion.
Mandi and Natwoli went into hiding in June fearing reprisals from police, local journalists told CPJ.
Ando Ratovonirina, Radio Télévision Analamanga
February 7, 2009, Antananarivo
Ratovonirina, a reporter and cameraman for the private broadcaster Radio Télévision Analamanga (RTA), was shot dead by presidential guards while covering an antigovernment demonstration in the capital Antananarivo, according to witnesses.
When soldiers opened fire on opposition demonstrators marching toward the presidential palace, a bullet struck Ratovonirina in the head, according to local journalists. The journalist was carrying a notebook and sound equipment, according to reporter Mirindra Raparivelo, who was filming the scene for RTA. Raparivelo recalled the hiss of bullets and the smell of gunfire as he crawled to safety uninjured.
At least 25 people were killed and another 167 injured in the shootings, according to The Associated Press. The country's defense minister resigned to protest the shootings, while the United Nations called for "a fair process by which those responsible will be brought to justice."
The shootings came amid a deepening power struggle between President Ravalomanana and rival Andry Rajoelina, the outspoken 34-year-old mayor of Antananarivo. Rajoelina had accused the president of mismanagement and demanded his resignation.
Ratovonirina, 26, was the first journalist killed in the line of duty in Madagascar since CPJ began keeping detailed death records in 1992. He was distinguished for his passion for journalism since joining RTA in October 2008, according to RTA Editor-in-Chief Andry Raveloson. "He had just completed his communications studies at the university and wanted to practice," Raveloson said. He said the young journalist had also worked for a local newspaper prior to joining the station.
MEXICO: 1
Eliseo Barrón
Hernández, La Opinión
May 25, 2009, Gómez Palacio
Authorities found Barrón's body the next day in the city of
Barrón, 35, had covered the police beat during 10 years for La Opinión, which is based out of neighboring Coahuila state, according to the national daily El Universal. In the days prior to his kidnapping, the journalist had covered a corruption scandal in the Torreón police that had resulted in the firing of 302 police officers and the investigation of at least 20 others, Milenio reported.
Federal authorities immediately took over the case, Milenio reported. La Opinión belongs to the Milenio media group.
On May 27, the day of Barrón's funeral, unidentified individuals hung five posters threatening journalists and soldiers in Torreón, the Mexican press reported. The messages, which were allegedly signed by the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, said: "We are here, journalists, ask Eliseo Barrón. El Chapo and the cartel do not forgive, be careful, soldiers and journalists." One of the posters was hung outside a TV station, and another outside a radio station, the local press reported.
The federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) put out an ad in several national dailies on May 28 announcing a 5 million Mexican pesos (US$380,000) reward for any information on Barrón's murder.
On June 12, the Mexican army reportedly detained five suspects at a routine road block in connection to Barrón's murder. According to a statement issued the same day by the PGR, one of the suspects, Israel Sánchez Jaimes, confessed to kidnapping and shooting the journalist. Sánchez said Lucio Fernández, aka "Lucifer," the Durango head of the Gulf cartel's enforcement arm, Los Zetas, ordered Barrón's killing "in order to teach a lesson to other local journalists so that they wouldn't meddle in the work of the delinquent group," according to the PGR.
Uma Singh, Janakpur Today, Radio Today
About 15 unidentified people attacked Uma Singh, a 27-year-old print and radio reporter, in her home in the southeastern district of Dhanusa in the Janakpur zone in the south of Nepal near the border with India, according to local and international news reports. Singh died of multiple stab wounds to the head and upper body while being transferred from a local hospital to a larger one later that evening.
Some journalists and civil society groups said they believe local Maoists may have been involved in the murder. Among other suggested motives, Nepal 's National Human Rights Commission suspects she was silenced by Maoist workers, who Singh blamed for the abduction and murder of her father and brother in 2006, according to the My Republica news Web site.
Mark Bench with the World Press Freedom Committee visited Janakpur in early February as part of an International Media Support mission looking into Singh's murder. He told CPJ by e-mail that the district police superintendent he interviewed believed her role as a journalist was a likely cause of her death. "She was known for her naming names and for blaming the Maoists for the murder of two family murders," he wrote. "We spoke with 11 female journalists from Janakpur. All spoke of her forthrightness that likely got her killed."
Several local news outlets reported that the murder was personal revenge. Police detained at least three members of her family, including her sister-in-law, on suspicion of ordering the murder over a land dispute, according to local news reports. It is not clear if they have been charged. CPJ bases its claim that Singh was killed for her work on the explanation offered by the World Press Freedom Committee and the reasoning followed by Singh's colleagues.
Singh worked for the Nepali-language daily Janakpur Today and the local FM station Radio Today, according to news reports. She opposed threats to women's rights--including the local tradition of the bride's family paying costly dowries before marriage--and criticized political leaders involved in local unrest stemming from ethnic separatist movements, the reports said.
Militant groups operating in the plains and low hills in the region around Janakpur, known as the Terai, advocate autonomy, and the region has seen outbreaks of violence since 2006, according to published analyses. Despite opening negotiations with some groups, the recently elected government, dominated by the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), has failed to stem the aggression. "If we don't air the news of their choice, they threaten us with killing," Singh told the U.N. Mission in Nepal during an interview in 2008, describing local armed groups.
PAKISTAN: 3
Mohammad Imran, Express TV
Tahir Awan, freelance
January 4, 2009, Dera Ismail Khan
A suicide bomber killed Imran, a cameraman trainee for Express TV, and Awan, a freelance reporter for the local Eitedal and Apna Akhbar newspapers, in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, North West Frontier Province, according to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and local news reports.
The fatal explosion occurred in the wake of a smaller blast and apparently was designed to target the early responders to the scene, the reports said. At least five other people were killed and several more injured, including police and civilians, in the early evening attack, according to the news reports.
The Pakistan Press International news service reported Awan's name as Tahir Saleem Awan.
Musa Khankhel, Geo TV and The News
February 18, 2009, Swat
No one claimed responsibility for the killing of Khankhel, who died in the first violation of a truce called two days earlier between the government and local militant groups, according to local and international news reports. Khankhel was targeted while covering a peace march led by Muslim cleric Sufi Muhammad, the father-in-law of local Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, the reports said. Muhammad was seeking to recruit his son-in-law to join a ceasefire agreement he had negotiated with local government.
TV Managing Director Azhar Abbas told CPJ by telephone from
Khankhel was native to the region and had worked for Geo for five years, with a reputation as an aggressive and courageous reporter, local journalists told CPJ. He also filed for Geo-affiliated daily The News.
PHILIPPINES: 2
Jojo Trajano, RemateJune 3, 2009, Taytay Town
Reporter Trajano was killed in crossfire during a police
raid of an alleged organized crime den near
Members of the group, which was suspected of drug trafficking
and theft, opened fire on police during the 2.30 a.m. raid in
Crispin Perez, DWDO Radio
June 9, 2009, San Jose
An unidentified attacker stabbed and fatally shot Perez in
An unknown assailant wearing a ski mask shot and fatally wounded Anastasiya Baburova, 25, a freelance correspondent for the independent Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta, on January 19, at around 3 p.m. The journalist was walking in downtown Moscow with human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, who had just given a press conference at the Independent Press Center that Baburova had attended and planned write about, Sergei Sokolov, Novaya Gazeta's deputy editor told CPJ.
The assailant followed the two and shot Markelov in the back of the head with a pistol fitted with a silencer, the independent business daily Kommersant reported, citing sources in the prosecutor-general's office. Baburova apparently tried to stop the killer, who had walked past her after shooting Markelov; the man then shot her in the head, Kommersant reported, citing unnamed witnesses. Markelov, 34, died immediately; Baburova died several hours later in a Moscow hospital, where she had undergone surgery, Lenta reported.
"It appears that Markelov was the main target," Sokolov told CPJ. He added that the paper is waiting for the official results of the investigation to determine whether Baburova was also targeted. According to the independent news Web site Lenta, the killer was described as a man around 5 feet 11 inches tall (180 cm), wearing dark clothes, and a green knit hat concealing all of his face but his eyes.
Baburova was a journalism student at Moscow State University and had contributed to Novaya Gazeta since October, covering the activities of neo-Nazi groups and race-motivated crimes, which have been on the rise in Moscow in recent years, Sokolov said. Baburova is the fourth Novaya Gazeta journalist killed since 2000.
Initially, Vladimir Pronin, head of the Moscow City Directorate of Internal Affairs told a news conference on January 23 that police retrieved three casings and a bullet at the crime scene, the news agency Interfax reported. But three days later, Viktor Biryukov, a spokesperson for the same police agency told the Russian daily Izvestiya that the investigation had no casings or bullets, and was unable to determine the make of the murder weapon or identify the killer.
The double murder is under the jurisdiction of Russia's top investigative agency, the investigative committee at the prosecutor-general's office, because of the crime's severity. In a statement published on the committee's official Web site, the head of the agency, Aleksandr Bastrykin, said: "The brazenness of this crime indicates that the killer was sure of his impunity. ... Society ought to be sure that the law works in this country and that no one is permitted to break it." Bastrykin pledged his agency's full resources and commitment to solving the murder.
SOMALIA: 6
Hassan Mayow Hassan, Radio Shabelle
January 1, 2009, Afgoye
Hassan, 36, a Radio Shabelle correspondent since 2006 in the town of Afgoye, 19 miles (30 kilometers) south of the capital, Mogadishu, was shot dead by a government soldier when he entered the town at around 10 a.m., local journalists told CPJ. Hassan was stopped by government soldiers who accused him of collaborating with Islamic insurgent groups before one of the soldiers shot him twice in the head, the journalists said eyewitnesses told them.
According to a Radio Shabelle editor, Abdi Nasir, Hassan was en route to a news conference when he was killed. Hassan produced many reports on the humanitarian situation in the region, including critical stories about the army's harassment of civilians in the area, the journalists said.
"If there is any evidence of wrongdoing by a government soldier or officer, we will investigate," Minister of Information Ahmed Abdisalam told CPJ. Hassan is survived by a wife and five children.
Said Tahlil Ahmed, HornAfrik
Masked gunmen repeatedly shot Tahlil, director of the independent broadcaster HornAfrik, as he several other senior journalists were walking through the Bakara Market area of the capital, according to CPJ interviews and news accounts.The journalists had been summoned to a meeting with members of Al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group that was apparently displeased with local coverage of the January 31 presidential election won by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a moderate Islamic leader. Al-Shabaab had rejected the election and considered the newly elected Ahmed to be a puppet of the west.
The other journalists escaped without serious injury, but Tahlil died at the scene. In a telephone interview, an Al-Shabaab spokesman denied responsibility for for the murder.
Tahlil became director of HornAfrik after the company's founder, Ali Sharmarke, was killed in August 2007 roadside bomb attack in Mogadishu. The director was best known for his Friday news program in which he discussed the week's top issues. Tahlil is survived by a wife and eight children.
Abdirisak Mohamed Warsame, Radio Shabelle
May 22, 2009, Mogadishu
Warsame, 24, was killed at 7:30 a.m. during renewed fighting in the capital,
According to local journalists, the shelling was so intense no one could pick up Warsame's body for over half an hour. Warsame was scheduled to present the morning news bulletins, Station Director Moqtar Mohamed Hirabe told CPJ.
The reporter is survived by his wife of six months.
Nur Muse Hussein, Radio IQK
May 26, 2009, Beledweyn
Hussein died as a
result of gunshot wounds suffered while covering fighting in April. A veteran correspondent
for Radio IQK, Hussein suffered
two bullet wounds to his right leg while reporting on clashes between militia
groups in the central town of Beledweyn on April 20, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists.In the past several weeks, journalists have faced heightened risk in covering fighting that has involved, at various times, Transitional Federal Government forces, allied militias, and Islamist insurgents.
Local journalist Abdel Rahim Dinni told CPJ that Hussein died in his home early this morning. One of the most senior journalists working in the region, Hussein had started his career in 1970 as a journalist for the Somali National News Agency, the news Web site Mareeg reported. He is survived by a wife and five children.
Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe, Radio Shabelle
June 8, 2009,
Hirabe, 48, was shot repeatedly in the head by unknown gunmen as he and a colleague, Ahmed Omar Hashi, were walking to work Sunday morning, local journalists told CPJ. Hashi, 41, was shot in the stomach and hand but managed to escape.
A veteran Radio Shabelle reporter, Hirabe took up the role as station director after the former director, Said Tahlil, was shot dead in February.
A popular journalist, Hirabe had led a charity drive to help displaced Somali children in 2006. He is survived by two wives and five children.
Mohamud Mohamed Yusuf, Radio IQK
July 4, 2009, Mogadishu
Yusuf, 22, was killed at 8 a.m. after presenting the morning
news on Radio IQK near Afarta Jardin in northern Mogadishu. According to local journalists,
Yusuf was hit twice in the stomach by stray bullets and lay on the roadside for
roughly three hours. Heavy gunfire prevented anyone from reaching him for about
three hours, the National Union of Somali Journalists reported. Yusuf was
eventually taken to
Yusuf worked at Radio IQK, a private radio station also referred to as Holy Quran Radio, for three years as a reporter, presenter, and occasionally as a producer, the union reported.
He is survived by his wife and three children.
SRI LANKA: 2
Lasantha Wickramatunga, The Sunday Leader
January 8, 2009, Colombo
Wickramatunga, editor-in-chief of the weekly Sunday
Leader, was a prominent senior Sri Lankan journalist known for his critical
reporting on the government. He was killed at around 10 a.m. in his car on his
way to work on a busy street in a mixed suburban and semi-industrial suburb of
Colombo. According to his
brother Lal Wickramatunga, chairman of the paper's parent company, Leader
Publications, the editor had been receiving anonymous death threats by phone
for months. Lasantha Wickramatunga's wife, Sonali Samarasinghe-Wickramatunga, told the CBC that
they had been followed earlier in the morning by two men on a motorcycle as
they ran errands, and that threats had been on the rise in recent days. He
received phone calls and text messages threatening to kill him if he did not
stop criticizing the government. Samarasinghe-Wickramatunga eventually left
Sri Lanka
after
her husband's death. The couple had married about two weeks before the attack.
Wickramatunga was killed by a hit squad of eight helmeted
men on four motorcycles, according to local newspaper reports. He died in the
hospital a few hours later. The attack happened about 200 yards (183 meters)
from a checkpoint at the large Ratmalana Air Base, but a bend in the road would
have kept the attack out of the sight of soldiers manning that post. Nearby
shop owners who became aware of the attack after it started told CPJ that the
motorcycle-riding attackers rode off in the direction of the checkpoint, adding
to the suspicion that there may have been some sort of official involvement.
The shop owners said they did not hear gunfire on the morning of the killing, and police told reporters they did not find shell casings. On the day of the murder, staffers at Wickramatunga's paper told CPJ by phone that the men had used pistols with silencers, which CPJ reported. We also reported that the car's windows had been smashed, apparently with a heavy object. With no coroner's report, there was no official explanation for the cause of death. But reliable sources say the attackers used a different murder weapon.
Wickramatunga's brother Lal spoke with the doctor who
treated him before he died in
Colombo's
Lal said he saw the magistrate's order describing the cause of death, and it said there had been a gunshot injury to the brain. He said he thinks the coroner's report has not been released because of the discrepancy in the description of the cause of death. He also said a police forensics expert found no chemical traces of a weapon being fired in the car, or shell casings at the scene. Two diplomatic sources in Colombo told CPJ that Wickramatunga's right temple had been crushed and that there was no bullet found inside the victim's brain.
The coroner's report was scheduled to be released on February 5. The local press later reported that the release date had been moved up to February 16, but it has yet to appear. Police told the media that they are waiting for the government to release the account, which, in their words, "would contain the scientific evidence" they need to proceed. CPJ has received the same formulaic response as it has continued to contact the police. "The belief here is the JMO's report is being tampered with," one journalist told CPJ by e-mail when asked for an update.
Puniyamoorthy
Sathiyamoorthy, freelance
February 12, 2009, Mullaitheevu
district
Sathiyamoorthy, a supporter of the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), wrote for many pro-Tamil publications and frequently contributed to official LTTE media. His live commentaries from conflict zones were widely seen and heard on pro-Tamil television and radio broadcasts, many in Canada . According to independent Tamil news sources as well as the LTTE's, he was killed in a Sri Lankan artillery barrage while he was in a "safe area" proscribed by the Sri Lankan Army.
Colleagues outside of the conflict area, not all of them Tamils, said Sathiyamoorthy's reports and commentary were measured, and that he strove to maintain journalistic standards and an accurate representation of the wartime situations in which he found himself. His work had a global reach, beyond Sri Lanka to the large numbers of Tamils living overseas.
Born in 1972, he eventually moved to Jaffna but traveled throughout the areas controlled by the LTTE during the decades-long conflict. He was married and was the father of a 6-year-old girl.
Several Tamil media reports said Sathiyamoorthy did not die immediately and cited relatives who cared for him after the incident who said the lack of proper medical attention contributed to his death. They also offered the same translation of his name, saying that "Sathyamoorthy" means "manifestation of truth."
VENEZUELA : 1
Orel Sambrano, ABC de la Semana and Radio
América
January 16, 2009
A motorcycle-riding assailant shot Sambrano, director of the local political weekly ABC de la Semana and Radio América, at around 3 p.m. outside a video store in Valencia , 95 miles (150 kilometers) west of Caracas, according to local news reports and CPJ interviews. Sambrano, who was on his way home from Radio América, died from a gunshot wound to the back of his head, news reports said.
Sambrano, 62, a practicing
lawyer, had worked as a political columnist for the local daily Notitarde in the north-central
On February 13, Venezuelan authorities arrested Rafael Segundo Pérez, a former sergeant for the Carabobo police, in connection to Sambrano's killing. Pérez is accused of working as a hired assassin and conspiring to commit a crime, authorities told the local press.
Local Police Commissioner Robinson Castillo told reporters that authorities are investigating local businessman Walid Makled for masterminding the journalist's murder, reported the national daily El Nacional. Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Makled, who is suspected of having fled Venezuela . At a press conference on February 22, the Makled family lawyer, Luis Ernesto López, said there was not sufficient evidence to link Makled to Sambrano's killing.
Colleagues told CPJ that Sambrano had published a number of investigative pieces on the Makled family in the months before his death. The local press also reported that Sambrano had mentioned Pérez as one of 13 police officers with ties to the Makled clan. Investigators said they believe Sambrano was shot in retaliation for his journalism.
Total Unconfirmed Cases for 2009: 17
AFGHANISTAN: 1
Jawed Ahmad, freelance
March 11, 2009,
Kandahar
Ahmad, 23, was shot while driving on a main street in
Kandahar, not far from
the governor's palace, according to The Canadian Press and Agence France-Presse.
Another car, which the Canadian network CTV identified as a white
Ahmad was a freelance field producer for CTV and worked for a number of other news organizations. He also pursued business projects unrelated to journalism.
Paul Workman, a former CTV Afghanistan correspondent, wrote glowingly about Ahmad in a station blog post: "Jojo was good. He had no training in journalism, but pursued stories with enviable passion and courage, driven by an urge to get ahead fast. He wanted to take better pictures than anybody else, he wanted to get better interviews; he simply wanted to please. And he wasn't afraid, or at least he never showed it."
"Who killed him and why? We will likely never know, and that's simply the way life comes and goes in such a hostile land," Workman said.
Beginning in October 2007, U.S. military forces detained Ahmad and held him without charge for 11 months. The U.S. Department of Defense said Ahmad was being held as an "unlawful enemy combatant" but gave no further explanation. Ahmad was freed from Bagram Air Base in September 2008. He was never charged with a crime.
No claims or responsibility came from any political or militant groups in the days after his death.
GUATEMALA : 2
Rolando Santiz, Telecentro 13
April 1, 2009,
Reporter Santiz and cameraman Antonio de León were driving
to the station's offices in
Santiz, a 30-year veteran, was well-known in Guatemala, local journalists told CPJ. He had covered the police beat for about half of his career. Elsie Sierra, a spokeswoman for the TV station, said Santiz had received death threats, although she said it was not clear whether they were linked to a specific story.
Rember Larios, deputy director of the Guatemalan police, told local reporters that de León was placed in protective custody. No information about the possible motive or suspects was immediately disclosed, Sierra told CPJ.Marco Antonio Estrada, Tele Diario
June 6, 2009, Chiquimula
An unidentified assailant approached Estrada, local
correspondent for the national television station Tele Diario, at around 8 p.m.
as he was stepping off his motorcycle on a street in Chiquimula, 138 miles (222
kilometers) east of
Estrada, 39, covered general news, which included organized crime and drug trafficking, for Tele Diario. Local reporters told CPJ that the region covered by Estrada has been plagued by increasing crime and drug trafficking.
Estrada had worked for more than 20 years as a journalist, local reporters told CPJ. He had covered Chiquimula for Tele Diario for the last 10 years, reports in the local press said. Estrada's wife told local reporters that she did not know of any threats against her husband. Chiquimula reporters told CPJ that local authorities are looking into Estrada's work as a possible motive.
HONDURAS: 2
Rafael Munguía Ortiz, Radio Cadena Voces
March 31, 2009,
At 6 p.m. on March 31, 2009, unidentified gunmen in a green
car shot Munguía, local correspondent for national Radio Cadena Voces (RCV), on
a street in the
Mungía, 52, had a long history working as a journalist in
According to Peñalva, investigators are looking into alleged threats against the reporter. Amaya said that she did not know of any previous harassment of the reporter. Police are investigating several motives but have discarded robbery as a possibility, Peñalva said.
Gabriel Fino Noriega, Estelar Radio, Radio América, TV
Channel 9
July 3, 2009,
Unidentified assailants gunned down broadcast reporter Noriega
in San Juan Pueblo, 215 miles (350 kilometers) north of the capital,
Noriega reported on general news, according to local press reports. Police said they are investigating but had no immediate suspects. Investigators are considering journalism as a possible motive, Ardón said.
IRAN: 1
Omidreza Mirsayafi, Roozneger
March 18, 2009,
Mirsayafi, 28, author of the cultural news blog, Rooznegar,
died in
Prison officials said Mirsayafi had committed suicide, the journalist's lawyer, Muhammad Ali Dadkhah, told the UK 's Times Online. Dadkhah said Mirsayafi had expressed concerns about his health, "but the doctors there didn't take this seriously and said he was faking it." Mirsayafi had just begun serving his prison term in February.
Hissam Fairoozy, an inmate, told Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) that Mirsayafi had suffered from depression and had been taken anti-depressant medication. Fairoozy, a physician, said that he was concerned about Mirsayafi's condition and had unsuccessfully sought to have prison doctors to hospitalize his fellow inmate.
Amirparviz Mirsayafi disputed claims that his brother suffered from depression. He told the U.S. government-funded Voice of America (VOA) on March 28 that his brother had no history of taking anti-depressant medication. He told VOA that his brother's body showed signs of abuse, including a left ear that "was covered with blood," he said. VOA posted a photo of Mirsayafi's face that showed facial bruises.
The government did not disclose any details about Mirsayafi's death.
Mirsayafi, in an interview with HRAI after being sentenced, said he had been coerced into making a false confession. He said the court didn't specify the blog entries that it considered offensive.
MEXICO: 3
Jean Paul Ibarra Ramírez, El Correo
February 13, 2009, Iguala
Photographer Ibarra and Yenny Yuliana Marchán Arroyo, a reporter for the daily Diario 21, were on their way to cover a car accident around 10 p.m. when an SUV pulled alongside their motorcycle and an unidentified gunman fired repeatedly, according to international news reports. The gunman then got out of the vehicle and shot the photographer a final time in the head, ignoring Marchán, police told CPJ. Ibarra, 33, died at the scene, press reports said. Marchán, 22, was hit three times.
Police in the southern city of
Ibarra was a crime photographer, local reporters told CPJ. Like many other journalists, they said, he stayed clear of stories about drug trafficking or police corruption to avoid danger. Marchán wrote a public opinion feature and once a week covered the crime beat for Diario 21.
The regional reporters union wrote Guerrero Gov. Zeferino Torreblanca asking that authorities move quickly to investigate the attack.
Carlos Ortega Samper, El Tiempo de Durango
April 3, 2009, Santa María El Oro
Around 5 p.m. on April 3, two pickup trucks intercepted
Carlos Ortega Samper, a reporter for the Durango City-based daily El Tiempo de Durango, as he was driving
home in the town of
In an article published on April 2, Ortega alleged that Mayor Martín Silvestre Herrera and Juan Manuel Calderón Guzmán, the local representative for federal programs, had threatened him in connection with recent reporting on conditions in a local slaughterhouse. In the same story, Ortega wrote that he was investigating a local police officer, Salvador Flores Triana, for alleged corruption. The journalist said that the three men should be held responsible if anything were to happen to him or his family.
Ortega, also an attorney, had worked as the Santa María El Oro correspondent for El Tiempo de Durango for less than a year. His editor, Saúl García, told CPJ that he believed Ortega was killed in retaliation for his reporting on local government corruption. However, he said he could not pinpoint a specific story.
García told CPJ that the state attorney's office was investigating Ortega's murder. Authorities have not made a motive public.
According to the national daily La Jornada, Silvestre told local reporters that he would not resign or take a leave of absence while the investigation into Ortega's murder was under way. The mayor said that he had never threatened the reporter, although he acknowledged having had disagreements with Ortega.
CPJ calls to the other two officials have gone unanswered.July 28, 2009,
Juan
Daniel Martínez Gil, anchor of the radio news programs "W Acapulco" on national
W Radio and "Guerrero en vivo" on local Radiorama Acapulco, was found partially
buried in a vacant lot in the town of
Enrique
Silva, Radiorama Acapulco's news director, told CPJ that Martínez was extremely
cautious when reporting the news and didn't investigate sensitive topics such
as drug trafficking or army and police activities in
Guerrero Governor Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo instructed State Prosecutor Murueta Urrutia to proceed with all his powers in the investigation. Murueta said that judging from the wounds the murder could have been committed by paid killers hired by individuals or by members of organized crime, according to local news reports. Forensic experts said that Martínez was asphyxiated, the newsweekly Proceso reported.
Colleagues who spoke to CPJ said they believed the killing was related to Martínez's work although they were unable to pinpoint a specific story. The state prosecutor told local reporters that his office was planning to review tapes of Martínez's recent broadcasts to try to determine a possible motive for his murder. No suspects have been yet identified.
In
the last few years, Guerrero has become an intense war zone for powerful drug
gangs and government forces. On April 6, 2007, a gunman shot another Radiorama
host, Amado Ramírez, who was also a reporter and correspondent for
Raja Assad Hameed, The Nation, Waqt TV
March 26, 2009,
Unknown gunmen shot and killed Raja Assad Hameed, a reporter with the English-language daily The Nation and its Urdu-language television channel, Waqt, while he was parking his car at his house.
Media accounts of the attack on Hameed vary. Beena Sarwar, a
media and human rights activist, looked closely into the murder and described
what she found to CPJ: "His family rushed out on hearing the gunshots and found
Hameed lying in a pool of blood," she wrote. "The bullets, fired at close
range, had pierced his neck and shoulder." Doctors pronounced him dead on arrival at the
Hameed was well-known, well-liked, and held in high regard for the quality of his work. He was fluent in English, Urdu, and Punjabi, and frequently appeared on Al-Jazeera, analyzing political development in Pakistan .
The day after the attack, Federal Information Minister
Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira told the official Associated Press of Pakistan that
"sick-minded criminals must have committed the murder of a journalist in
With no conclusive police investigation, it is difficult to
determine the motive behind the Hameed's killing. CPJ's 2009
Global Impunity Index ranks
Pakistan
as 10th among countries where journalists are regularly killed and governments
fail to solve the crimes.
Siddique
Bacha Khan, Aaj TV
August 14, 2009, Mardan
Unidentified gunmen shot dead Bacha Khan in
the city of
A news correspondent for the independent Aaj TV channel, Bacha Khan was ambushed by gunmen and shot at close range, the channel reported on its Web site. Earlier he had interviewed family members of a former military official who was killed by Taliban and was returning to the office when he was shot, the channel's bureau chief, Imtiaz Awan, said on its Web site.
The journalist died en route to the hospital, according to Aaj TV and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists..
It was not clear whether the murder was related to Bacha Khan's reporting. Police are investigating the death, which occurred in a notoriously unstable region where journalists are often at risk from militant groups or security forces. President Asif Ali Zardari called for the authorities to complete a report on the case as soon as possible, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Wasi Ahmad Qureshi, Daily Azadi, Balochistan Express
April 16, 2009, Khuzdar
Gunmen fired at point-blank range on Qureshi and a
colleague, Muhammad Siddiq Mosiani, near a newsstand in Khuzdar district in the
southwestern
The motive for the attack on the journalists remained unclear, according to Asif Baloch, the editor of Quetta-based Daily Azadi. Local officials said they were investigating but had made no progress, according to Baloch, who spoke with CPJ by telephone. Although some news reports said militants from the separatist organization Balochistan Liberation Army carried out the shooting, Baloch said they had not claimed responsibility for it and had no known reason to attack the journalist. Daily Azadi and the Balochistan Express, which are both run by Editor-in-Chief Siddiq Baluch, say they are editorially independence from the local government, which is frequently in conflict with insurgents in the restive province.
PHILIPPINES: 3
Badrodin Abbas, DXCM
January 22, 2009, Cotabato City
Abbas was shot in the head by two motorcycle-riding assailants while he was driving a minivan, ccording to local news reports. He was a "block-timing" commentator, which means he had to solicit his own sponsors, at the Cotabato City branch of Radyo Ukay of the Univerisity of Mindanao Broadcasting Network, the reports said. Abbas died immediately from the head wound, Police Chief Willie Dangane told reporters.
Dangane said the killing was captured on a closed-circuit video camera, according to news reports. He initially told reporters he planned to launch an investigation into whether Abbas' murder was related to his work as a journalist, but in subsequent reports said the murder was more likely a result of mistaken identity. CPJ is investigating to determine whether the murder was related to his work.
Undersecretary of Justice Ricardo Blancaflor, who oversees a government task force dedicated to investigating journalist murders, announced that he had sent a forensic team to investigate.
Abbas had established a reputation for hard-hitting commentary, including recent pieces on a proposed peace deal that came undone by a court ruling last October between the government and a Muslim rebel group known as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, according to press reports. The two sides have engaged in an on-and-off armed conflict for nearly four decades.
Godofredo Linao, Radyo Natin
July 27, 2009, Surigao del Sol
Philippine broadcaster Godofredo Linao Jr., 49, was shot in Barabo township, Surigao del Sur province,
approximately 545 miles (877 kilometers) from the capital,
Linao hosted a
weekly public affairs program called "Straight to the Point" on Radyo Natin,
and worked as a DJ for
another radio station, the reports said. He went
to Barabo in response to a text message at around 1 a.m., according to the
National Union of Journalists of the
The motive for the murder was not clear. Task Force USIG, a unit of the Philippines National Police dedicated to investigating media and political murders, said it considers his radio broadcasts a possible motive in the attack. Linao "usually attacks politicians in his radio program," a task force synopsis said. Alviso said he has received threatening text messages since Linao's murder and that he believes the shooting may be related to Linao's commentaries on local government corruption, according to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR).
Linao, a "block-timer" who leased airtime from Radyo Natin, was also a spokesman for provincial Vice Governor Librado Navarro, who was also a sponsor of his radio program, according to CMFR. Linao's wife told CMFR that Linao had planned to run as a candidate for the 2010 provincial board elections and had received threats while running for political posts in the past.
Ernie Rollin, DXSY Radio
February 23, 2009, Oroquieta City
Two men shot Rollin around 5:30 a.m. at a gas station in
The men, who were riding a motorcycle and wearing ski masks,
shot him at least three times while he was parking at a gas station, the reports
said. Rollin's partner, Ligaya Barero, who was waiting for him nearby, tried to
help him when she heard the gunshots but the assailants shot him another time
and fled, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
Barero, who is now in
Rollin had been a journalist for about 10 years and was
popular for his outspoken comments on a primetime current affairs program on
the DXSY radio station. In the days preceding his death, Rollin had talked
about controversial laws affecting the province. The Centre for Media Freedom
and Responsibility told CPJ in
On May 24, police arrested suspected triggerman Juel Jumalon, a former member of the New People's Army, the reports said. A murder case was filed against Jumalon and another man who was not named at the Misamis Occidental Regional Trial Court on June 22. The second suspect surrendered to police soon after the murder, according to the Cagayan de Oro newspaper.
Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, the chair of Task Force 211--a government agency created to prevent political violence--said the group considered Rollin's murder to be work-related in a July 30 press release.
Shafig Amrakhov, RIA 51
January 5, 2009, Murmansk
On December 30, 2008, an unidentified assailant shot and seriously wounded Amrakhov, editor of the online regional news agency RIA 51, in his apartment building in the northern city of Murmansk, the independent news agency Regnum reported. The assailant shot Amrakhov several times in the head, using what is known as a non-lethal traumatic pistol, local press reported.
According to local press reports, Amrakhov was conscious immediately after the attack and managed to give his family details. Amrakhov was taken to a Murmansk hospital, where he underwent several hours of surgery. He slipped into a coma after the surgery and died on January 5, Regnum reported.
Local police reportedly considered several potential motives for the attack, including Amrakhov's journalism, the local channel TV-21 reported. Several local reports said the choice of weapon suggested the attacker intended to intimidate Amrakhov but not necessarily to kill him.
On January 22, Gen. Vitaly Fedotov, head of Murmansk region police department, told TV-21 that investigators ruled out Amrakhov's journalism as a motive. "In this case it was probably an attempt to pressure him in connection to his [other] activities, which I cannot name and don't want to talk about," Fedotov told TV-21.
The Moscow-based Glasnost Defense Foundation said Amrakhov suffered a concussion in a 1997 attack in which an unknown assailant struck him in the head with a blunt object in the entrance to his apartment building.
In February 2008, Amrakhov publicly protested authorities'
decision to deny him accreditation for then-President
Vyacheslav Yaroshenko, Korruptsiya i Prestupnost
June 29, 2009, Rostov-on-Don
Yaroshenko, editor-in-chief of the Rostov-on-Don newspaper Korruptsiya i Prestupnost, died of head injuries suffered in an April attack. Yaroshenko was found unconscious with a head wound in the entrance to his apartment building early on the morning of April 30. He was hospitalized with skull and brain trauma, underwent surgery, and spent five days in a coma, his deputy, Sergei Sleptsov, told CPJ at the time.
Sleptsov told Russian news outlets in June that he believed Yaroshenko
was attacked in retaliation for the newspaper's work. Korruptsiya i Prestupnost, an independent paper whose title
translates as "Corruption and Crime," had reported on corruption
allegations involving
