13-01-2011, 03:42 PM
INSI - International News Safety Institute
Total number of Journalists' Deaths as of 28 December 2010 95
JANUARY
05 JANUARY - BULGARIA - BORIS NIKOLOV TSANKOV
Tsankov was going to meet his lawyer in Sofia, accompanied by his two bodyguards, when the gunmen struck, shooting him in the heart. He died on the spot and his bodyguards were wounded. The gunmen escaped. Tsankov, who had published a book a month earlier about the mafia in Bulgaria, reported receiving death threats following its publication and had requested police protection. He had survived a previous attempt to his life in 2004.
07 JANUARY- MEXICO- VALENTIN VALDES ESPINOSA
Valentin Valdes Espinosa, a reporter for the Zocalo of Saltillo newspaper, and two other journalists were intercepted by two trucks full of gunmen late Thursday. Valdes Espinosa's body, bound, gagged and bearing five bullet holes, was found Friday morning. Tacked to it: a written warning of the kind often left by drug traffickers. The two reporters with Valdes Espinosa were let go or got away, authorities said.
Valdes Espinosa, 28, is the third journalist slain in Mexico in the last 18 days. Mexico in 2009 had earned the unwanted designation of the most dangerous country for the news media in the Western Hemisphere.
09 JANUARY- AFGHANISTAN- RUPERT HAMER
The defence correspondent of Britain's Sunday Mirror newspaper has become the first British journalist to be killed while covering the war in Afghanistan. Rupert Hamer, 39, was accompanying a US Marine Corps patrol when an explosion from a device hidden outside a small village hit the vehicle he was travelling in on Saturday. The photographer Philip Coburn, 43, who had worked with Mr Hamer in several war zones, suffered severe leg injuries in the attack. He was in a serious but stable condition in the British military hospital at Camp Bastion in Helmand.
The explosion, which also killed one US Marine and seriously wounded four, brought to 18 the number of journalists who have died in Afghanistan since the 9/11 attacks as they seek to cover the US-led invasion and its aftermath. It is the first time that a British reporter has been killed in the conflict and Mr Hamer is the first UK correspondent to die in a warzone since the death of ITN's Terry Lloyd in Iraq in 2003.
09 JANUARY- ANGOLA- STANISLAS OCLOO
Togolese sports journalist Stanislas Ocloo, 35, was killed in the attack on the Togo national soccer team's bus in the northwestern Angolan enclave of Cabinda. As many as three people were killed and nine wounded in the strike, CNN reported. Ocloo, a contributor to sports programs on national broadcaster Télévision Togolaise (TVT) and the communications chief of the Togolese soccer association, died on Saturday morning, hours before the kick-off of the African Nations Cup he was going to cover, according to news reports. TVT presenter Blaise Amedodji, who appeared with Ocloo on a weekly sports program called "Club of Saturday" since 2007, told CPJ the journalist had planned to carry out interviews with African soccer stars for the station. Angolan authorities announced the arrests of two suspects in connection with the attack, which was claimed by the separatist Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda, according to news reports. There has been a low-level insurgency for regional independence for decades.
According to local journalists, hooded gunmen opened fire on the team bus some 15 minutes after it crossed into Cabinda from neighboring Republic of Congo. Togo pulled out of the tournament and a national three-day mourning period began today. The Union of Independent Journalists of Togo called the incident "savage aggression" and called on Angolan authorities to assume responsibility for the security lapse.
Ocloo began his journalism career in 1995 as a consultant with a youth program on private station Tropic FM, then reported with Avenir FM before joining Togo's first sports station, Sport FM, in 2001, according to Amedodji. Ocloo had become engaged last month, according to local journalists.
16 JANUARY - MEXICO - JOSE LUIS ROMERO
Mexican police said on Saturday they found the body of a crime reporter abducted last month by apparent drug traffickers. The remains of radio journalist Jose Luis Romero were discovered wrapped in plastic near the city of Los Mochis in the western state of Sinaloa, a hotspot in Mexico's drug war. The latest victim in an upsurge of attacks on the media, Romero was kidnapped on December 30 at a seafood restaurant. His hands and a leg were broken before he was shot to death, police said. Attacks on the media have mounted as drug gangs seek to silence journalists who report on the drug killings.
29 JANUARY - MEXICO - JORGE OCHOA MARTINEZ
The editor-in-chief of the El Sol de la Costa newspaper has been murdered in southern Mexico, the Guerrero state Public Safety Secretariat said. Jorge Ochoa Martinez's body was found Friday night in Ayutla de los Libres, a city located some 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the tourist resort of Acapulco. Ochoa Martinez was shot in the face, the secretariat said.
Police in Ayutla found the body while responding to a call about a "dead man inside an automobile" a short distance from city hall, the secretariat said. The gunmen who killed the journalist fled in a vehicle, eyewitnesses said.
No arrests have been made and the motive for the killing has not been determined.
FEBRUARY
07 FEBRUARY - NEPAL - JAMIM SHAH
Jamim Shah, Chairman of Spacetime Network Pvt. Ltd., was shot dead in Kathmandu by unknown assailants riding a motorcycle. Media tycoon Shah was well known in Nepal for, among other things, having introduced Cable TV to the country.
13 FEBRUARY-YEMEN-MOHAMMED SHU'I AL-RABU'I
Mohammed Shu'i Al-Rabu'i, a correspondent for several news media including the opposition newspaper "Al-Qahira", was gunned down in the district of Beni Qais, 120 km northwest of Sanaa. Those allegedly responsible have been arrested.
Al-Rabu'i, 34, was reportedly shot dead at his home by four or five individuals who were arrested after attacking him in late 2009 but were released before charges were brought.
"The murderers have been arrested and will be punished," Beni Qais security chief Abdelrazeq Az-Zareq said, adding that he took "full responsibility" for their release at the end of 2009.
Al-Rabu'i had worked for more than 10 years for "Al-Qahira", published by the Islamic Reform Grouping (Al-Islah), the main opposition party. In the last legislative elections, in 2003, Al-Islah won 22.6 per cent of the vote and 46 of the 301 seats in parliament.
Respect for press freedom worsened last year in Yemen but this is the first time that a journalist has been murdered in violence against independent or opposition news media since North and South Yemen merged in 1990.
17 FEBRUARY - PAKISTAN - HAMEED MARWAT
Unidentified gunmen shot dead Hameed Marwat, a journalist at the Sariab Road in Quetta. Police said the gunmen opened fire at him as he came out of his house.
17 FEBRUARY - PAKISTAN - ASHFAQ MANGI
Ashfaq Mangi, a reporter of a private television channel was shot dead by unknown men in front of the Gambat Post Office in Khairpur.
MARCH
01 MARCH - HONDURAS - JOSEPH HERNÃNDEZ OCHOA
Journalist Joseph Hernández Ochoa of the privately-owned Canal 51 TV station was shot dead in Tegucigalpa.Ochoa, who hosted an entertainment program on the station, was driving fellow colleague Karol Cabrera home when their car came under fire.
Supposedly the target of the attack,Cabrera survived. A total of 36 bullet impacts were found in her car. A very outspoken journalist at Canal 8 TV and Radio Cadena Voces (RCV), Cabrera had already reported receiving threats. In December 2009,she was victim of a similar ambush, which took the life of her 16 years old daughter.
2 MARCH - NEPAL - ARUN SIMHANIYA
Arun Simhaniya, publisher of the Janakpur daily newspaper, was returning home when gunmen riding on motorcycles shot and killed him.
The publisher of a daily newspaper in southern Nepal, Simhaniya was shot three times and died before reaching the hospital.
A little-known group calling themselves the Rajan Liberation Group called local newspaper offices in the area and claimed responsibility for the attack.
Janakpur is about 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of the capital, Katmandu.
06 MARCH - INDIA - MUKESH KUMAR
A 35-year-old photo journalist was killed when the car in which he was travelling hit a roadside tree in Puri district of Orissa, police said on Sunday. The accident occurred near Pipili Saturday when Mukesh Kumar, who was working as photographer with Aaj Tak television channel, was traveling from Puri to Bhubaneswar.
Kumar was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, they said. He is survived by his wife and a six-month-old son.
A reporter of the Hindi news channel Pravat Kumar, who was travelling with Mukesh, sustained grievous injuries and was undergoing treatment.
11 MARCH - HONDURAS - DAVID MEZA MONTESINOS
Radio journalist David Meza Montesinos became the second Honduran journalist to be murdered since the start of the year, following the fatal shooting of TV journalist Joseph Ochoa of Canal 51 on 1 March. Meza was shot by unidentified gunmen in an ambush near his home in the Atlantic coast city of La Ceiba, where he worked for local radio station El Patio as well as for Radio América, a national station, and Abriendo Brecha, a TV station. An often controversial journalist, he reported getting threats three weeks ago after a report about drug trafficking.
12 MARCH - MEXICO - EVARISTO PACHECO SOLIS
Mexican reporter Evaristo Pacheco SolÃs was found shot to death in the city of Chilpancingo, in the crime-ravaged state of Guerrero, news reports said. Pacheco, 33, a reporter with the weekly Visión Informativa, was shot several times with a small calibre pistol, and his body was left along the side of a rural road, according to local news reports. Family members identifie
14 MARCH - HONDURAS - NAHUM PALACIOS
Honduran journalist Nahum Palacios was murdered in the northeastern city of Tocoa, becoming the third media professional to die violently in the Central American country over the past two weeks, police said. The killing occurred around 10.30 p.m. Sunday when Palacios, 36, was driving to his home in the Los Pinos neighbourhood, police spokesperson Leonel Sauceda told reporters. Palacios worked for Radio Tocoa and a television channel serving the province of Colon. Several men travelling in two vehicles intercepted Palacios and opened fire, according to the police report. Sauceda said that Palacios's automobile was hit by 42 bullets.
19 MARCH - COLOMBIA - CLODOMIRO CASTILLA
Clodomiro Castilla, a reporter and announcer at La Voz de Monteria radio, was gunned down on his front porch Friday night, said Jaime Cuervo, a judicial investigator in Cordoba state. Castilla, a 50-year-old father of four, had reported on far-right drug-funded militias known as paramilitaries and their friendly ties to the area's business elite. Cordoba has long been a paramilitary stronghold. Police had no immediate suspects in the killing and offered a $26,000 reward for leads. Castilla's employer said he had received threats and was assigned bodyguards for two years until last year.
22 MARCH - ECUADOR - JORGE SANTANA CARBONELL
Jorge Santana Carbonell, director of the weekly Tribune and news presenter on Channel CQ15 in the southern city of Pasaje, died after spending seven days in a coma following a suspicious road accident. Santana was hit by a car on 16 March as he rode his motorbike. He told the ambulance crew he was being chased. It was widely assumed the incident was related to crime stories he had written for the Tribune, but this could not be confirmed.
26 MARCH - HONDURAS - JOSE BAYARDO
26 MARCH - HONDURAS - MANUEL DE JESUS JUAREZ
Two journalists have been shot to death in eastern Honduras, bringing to five the number of media workers killed in the Central American country this month. Radio journalists Jose Bayardo, 52, and Manuel de Jesus Juarez, 55, were riddled with bullets as they drove on a highway in the rural province of Olancho, prosecutor Wendy Caballero said, adding investigators have not yet established a motive. The two were killed after leaving the Excelsior radio station, where they had just broadcast a news show.
APRIL
04 APRIL - TURKEY - METIN ALATAS
34-year-old Metin Alataş, a journalist working for Azadiya Welat daily newspaper published in Kurdish, was found dead in the Hadırlı district of Adana in the predominantly Kurdish region of south-eastern Turkey on 4 April. Nobody had heard from Alataş since he had gone to the district and distributed copies of the daily on 3 April. Alataş was found hanged in a tree. Alataş had been subject of an assault four months earlier. Five unidentified people approached him in a car with an Adana number plate when the journalist distributed newspaper copies in front of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) building on 22 December 2009. Atalaş was beaten and had to undergo medical treatment in hospital. bianet, the independent media forum website, spoke to diplomacy service editor Hakkı Boltan who said: "There are contradictory aspects in our opinion. It will be clear soon. In times when our employees are encountering such intense pressure, we think there is still the possibility that Alataş was killed by illegal forces or that he was forced to commit suicide." Police are investigating.
05 APRIL - DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO - PATIENT CHIBEYA
A Congolese journalist was shot dead by men in military fatigues, in front of his home in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Beni. Well-known cameraman Patient Chibeya, 35, who worked for Radio Television Nationale Congolaise (RTVN), had just got off a motorcycle taxi in front of his home when he was approached by as many as seven armed men in military fatigues, at around 10:00 pm. An AFP report said Chibeya was hit by six bullets.
Muhinda Wema Kennedy, a Congolese journalist who knew Chibeya very well, told the International Press Institute: "It must have been pre-meditated. His wife tried to intervene, but they said they had come to get him." Kennedy said it was possible Chibeya, who often filmed official events, possessed footage that might have been "damaging" to someone. "This was not a hold-up, it was a carefully prepared operation," Beni mayor Mufunza Bayengo told Reporters Without Borders. "We firmly condemn this unfortunate event."
07 APRIL - SOUTH AFRICA - THABO KGONGOANA
A journalist was shot dead during an armed robbery at a hotel and casino in Mafikeng, police said. Colonel Lesego Metsi said Thabo Kgongoana was shot from close range with an AK-47 rifle. "He was shot dead from behind through the chest. What could have led to this killing is not yet known. It is suspected that they realised he had a camera and so he was shot." Mmabatho Palms Hotel Casino said Kgongoana, editor of the Mahikeng-based TaxiTimes, died as he was leaving the hotel after attending a government function.
09 APRIL - THAILAND - HIRO MURAMOTO
A Reuters television cameraman was shot dead during a violent clash between Thai troops and anti-government protesters in Bangkok that killed 12 people. Hiro Muramoto, a 43-year-old Japanese national, was shot in the chest and arrived at Klang Hospital without a pulse, hospital Director Dr Pichaya Nakwatchara said. dren. He had been covering fighting between troops and protesters in the Rajdumnoen Road area where soldiers opened fire with rubber bullets and tear gas, as well as live rounds into the air, in Bangkok's worst political violence in 18 years. Muramoto, who had worked for Reuters in Tokyo for more than 15 years, was married with two children.
10 APRIL - MEXICO - ENRIQUE VILLICANA PALOMARES
The body of a kidnapped Mexican journalist has been found with his throat slit, federal prosecutors said Sunday. The family of Enrique Villicana Palomares, a columnist for the daily newspaper The Voice of Michoacan in central Mexico, reported him missing last week after he didn't make it to a university where he taught writing. Federal prosecutors said in a written statement that his body was found Saturday in the state capital, Morelia, after someone demanded a ransom. The statement did not say whether a ransom was paid, and prosecutors were not available. Investigators have not determined if Palomares was targeted because of his work as a journalist. His family told the press advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders that he was a member of the indigenous Purepecha group, and that he had written columns about attacks by armed groups on members on his community.His employers told Reporters Without Borders that the Michoacán state justice department failed to take any action after being notified two weeks ago that threats had been made against him.
11 APRIL-HONDURAS - LUIS ANTONIO CHEVEZ HERNANDEZ
RadioW105 presenter Luis Antonio Chévez Hernández was gunned down in San Pedro Sula, the country's business capital, following a particularly violent month of March in which five journalists were slain. Aged 22 and nicknamed "El Huevo" (The Egg), Chévez and a cousin were getting out of a car outside Chévez's house when they were shot by unidentified gunmen, who fled the scene. The motive is still unknown but the police have ruled out robbery as a sizeable sum of money was found in the victims' belongings. Witnesses said they had seen strangers lurking near the house prior to the arrival of Chévez and his cousin. "We cannot stand this wave of violence any longer," a member of the journalist's family said. No one has been brought to justice for any of the murders, physical attacks or threats against journalists since the June 2009 coup d'état.
11 APRIL - COLOMBIA - MAURICIO MORENO MEDINA
Indigenous journalist Mauricio Moreno Medina, the founding member of a community radio station for the Pijao indigenous people, was murdered by unknown assailants in his home, in the town of Ortega in Colombia's western Tolima department. Medina, 50, died of multiple knife wounds.
Police investigating the murder said they did not suspect a link with any illegal armed groups. They said Moreno had not received any death threats.
But Reporters Without Borders (RSF) suggested the murder was more than a "crime of passion" as police concluded. "The label "crime of passion" is too often used to avoid investigation of any link with the victim's work, even to the extent of covering up a case. This has already happened in several other murders of journalists in Colombia," it said. "As a director of a community radio, the kind of media often targeted by the authorities, particularly in conflict areas, Medina ran risks as a result of his work."
14 APRIL - PHILIPPINES - EDWIN SEGUES
A radio reporter was shot dead in the southern Philippines on Wednesday, the second reporter to be murdered in the country this year, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said.Edwin Segues was also a local village official in Misamis Occidental province on the southern island of Mindanao. He was on his way to work when two men shot him three times and fled on a motorcycle, said Ramon Diones, police chief in Ozamis City.The police had no motive for the murder.
16 APRIL - PAKISTAN - MALIK ARIF
Samaa TV cameraman Malik Arif was killed in a suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital and five journalists Noor Elahi Bugti of Samaa TV, Salman Ashraf of Geo TV, Fareed Ahmed of Dunya TV, Khalil Ahmed of Express TV and Malik Sohail of Aaj TV were wounded. The journalists were at the hospital to film a gathering by Shiites in support of a Shiite businessman who had been the target of a murder attempt. Seven other people were killed in the bombing, which bore the hallmarks of a Sunni jihadist action. "When all the businessman's friends and all the journalists had gathered at the hospital, a suicide bomber came up, opened fire and then blew himself up in the middle of the crowd," Quetta-based journalist Malik Siraj told Reporters Without Borders. A journalist for 30 years and father of four children, Malik Arif was the second journalist to be killed in Pakistan since the start of this year.
16 APRIL - LATVIA - GRIGORIJS NEMCOVS
Media owner Grigorijs Ņemcovs was the victim of an apparent contract killing in Daugavpils, the largest city in the southeastern region of Latgale. Publisher of the regional newspaper Million and owner of a local TV station of the same name, Ņemcovs was shot twice in the head at close range when he went to a meeting in a café. The murder, appeared to have been carefully planned and executed. The gunman seems to have been following Ņemcovs when he arrived at a café on Lacplesa Street near the University of Daugavpils. Founded by Ņemcovs in 1995 and now Latvia's biggest regional Russian-language newspaper, Million is renowned for its investigative coverage of political and local government corruption and mismanagement. Ņemcovs was also an activist and deputy mayor of Daugavpils whose support played a major role in the success of the civil society movement Latgales Tauta (Nation of Latgale). Death threats were made against Ņemcovs in 2007 and his house was burned down. The arsonists were never identified. He was also physically attacked in 2000 by unidentified assailants who took his passport.The police have not yet identified any suspects for his murder.
18 APRIL - PAKISTAN - AZMAT ALI BANGASH
Reporter Azmat Ali Bangash became the second Samaa TV journalist to be killed by a suicide bomber in past 48 hours. Bangash was doing a report in a camp for displaced Shiite villagers near the Afghan border, 65 km from Peshawar, when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the place where families had gathered to be registered, killing 41 people including Bangash and injuring around 60 others. The bombings, which were claimed by a Sunni jihadist group, Al Laskhar-e-Jahngvi, were targeted at Shiites who have been forced to flee the fierce fighting in the Orakzai region resulting from an army offensive against the Taliban. Samaa TV cameraman Malik Arif was killed and five journalists were wounded by a suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital the day before that left a total of eight dead. The journalists had gone to the hospital to cover a Shiite demonstration in support of a Shiite businessman who had been the target of a murder attempt.
20 APRIL - HONDURAS - GEORGINO ORELLANA
A gunman fatally shot a journalist in the head as he was leaving a television studio in the city of San Pedro Sula. Honduran police spokesman Hector Ivan Mejia said 48-year-old Georgino Orellana had just finished anchoring his news show and was leaving TV-Honduras' building Tuesday night when a gunman approached and shot him once in the head. Mejia didn't say whether Orellana's death was tied to his work as a journalist.
24 APRIL - NIGERIA - NATHAN DABAT
24 APRIL - NIGERIA - SUNDAY BWADE
In the city of Jos in the restive central Plateau state, a mob of Muslim rioters reacting to the discovery of an allegedly Muslim corpse found near a church killed Deputy Editor Nathan S. Dabak, 36, and reporter Sunday Gyang Bwede, 39, of Church of Christ in Nigeria-owned monthly The Light Bearer, according to local news reports. Journalists have been targeted amid recent deadly outbreaks of sectarian violence in the area.
The journalists were riding a motorcycle on their way interview a local politician, Member of Parliament Bitrus Kaze, when they were stabbed by rioters on Saturday morning, their editor-in-chief, Gyarta Pofi, told the Committee to Protect Journalists. The Associated Press reported that they were covering the unrest.
24 APRIL - NIGERIA - EDO SULE-UGBAGWU
Two unidentified gunmen shot dead the Judiciary Correspondent of The Nation newspaper, Mr. Edo Sule-Ugbagwu in his Lagos residence. He was hit in the head by several bullets. His killing came seven months after the former Assistant News Editor of The Guardian, Mr. Bayo Ohu, was killed by unknown gunmen in Lagos. Two senior journalists with ThisDay newspaper, Godwin Agbroko and Abayomi Ogundeji, were shot in similar circumstances in 2006 and 2008.
The two armed men are reported to have invaded Sule-Ugbagwu's flat around 6.30pm. The journalist's younger brother, Okloho, told newsmen that he was accosted by the gunmen, who demanded money. Sule-Ugbagwu was said to have asked the gunmen to leave his apartment and they subsequently shot him on the forehead.
The paper has called for a thorough probe of the murder. The Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, Mr. Frank Mba, who spoke to journalists at the journalist's residence, said it was too early for the police to say what happened or who killed Edo.
MAY
03 MAY - BANGLADESH - FOTEH OSMANI
Foteh Osmani, a correspondent of Bangladesh's top weekly Shaptahik 2000, died from injuries suffered when unidentified armed assailants attacked him when he was riding on a motorcycle two weeks earlier. In a letter to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Reporters Without Borders expressed concern about the incident, saying it "cast doubt" on the government's desire to ensure a favourable media environment. "We urge you to order an exhaustive investigation into Foteh Osmani's murder in order to establish the identity and motives of those responsible and bring them to justice," the group's secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said. Osmani's "assailants clearly set an ambush for him even if their motives are not yet known," Julliard said in the letter.
Shaptahik 2000 is the South Asian country's highest-circulation Bengali weekly and is known for its hard-hitting investigative reports on corruption and social problems.
04 MAY - SOMALIA - SHEIK MOHAMAD ABKEY
Gunmen killed a Somali journalist working for the country's state-run radio station after abducting him on his way back home from work in Mogadishu.
According to his co-workers, Sheik Mohamed Abkey was kidnapped earlier on Tuesday.
"He came to work as usual this morning and left to see his family when gunmen took him, torturing him before they shot him dead," AFP quoted the station's political correspondent Abdolaziz Mohamed Guled as saying.
His colleagues linked the killing of Abkey to Radio Mogadishu's critical views of insurgents. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
Gunmen abandoned Abkey's mutilated body in a Mogadishu street, eyewitnesses said.
Abkey joined the Somali News Agency -- SONA -- in the 1970s. During years of civil war in the country he also worked for the Somali Television Network based in Mogadishu, where he was a news anchor and comedian. More recently, he worked with Somalia's Information Ministry.
05 MAY - INDIA - AJAY TIWARI
A reporter with a Hindi news channel was killed when a wall collapsed on him when he was covering a fire in south-west Delhi. Ajay Tiwari (27), a reporter with a Noida-based TV channel, died inside a four-storey clothes godown in Rajapuri near Dwarka where a fire had broken out around 4:15pm. Tiwari was taking shots of the fire when a cylinder blast triggered a wall collapse. He was crushed inside the debris, said fire brigade officials. Police said the incident took place as the cylinder blast led to simultaneous blasts in two adjoining water pumps. The pressure of the water led to the wall collapse. Tiwari was rushed to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. He was married with a three-year-old child.
06 MAY - IRAQ - SARDASHT OSMAN
A 23 year old student of the University of Salahadin, who also worked as a journalist, was kidnapped and murdered in the city of Mosul, reported local media outlets. Sardasht Osman was kidnapped by a group of armed men from in front of the Language Department of the University of Salahadin where he was a final year English student. One report said the student could have been kidnapped because of an article that he had written on a high ranking member of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). A close friend said Osman worked as a journalist and his last story was about a high ranking member of the KRG that is why according to his friend - "it is suspected that his kidnapping be a result of this article." Bashdar Osman, the brother of the victim, said his brother was threatened a number of times via mobile phone calls because he wrote about the [KRG] authorities.
10 MAY - PAKISTAN - GHULAM RASOOL BIRHAMANI
Police found the body of journalist Ghulam Rasool Birhamani, 30, a reporter for the daily "Sindhu Hyderabad", at a deserted place two kilometres from Dadu. Hospital officials said death was caused by fatal injuries to the head. There were torture marks on the body. Ghulam Bhind, president of the Dadu Press Club, told the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) that Ghulam Rasool Birhamani had received threats from members of the Lashari tribe some days ago after he reported on the marriage of an underage girl from the tribe.
13 MAY - RUSSIA - SAID IBRAGIMOV
Said Ibragimov, director of the local TBS television channel, was killed on his way to restore a TV transmitter, damaged by militants the day before. Near the village of Ayazi his Niva, carrying a team of repairmen, and the accompanying police jeep were ambushed by gunmen who set off a bomb in front of the vehicles and then opened fire. They killed five, among them Ibragimov, and wounded four.
19 MAY - THAILAND- FABIO POLENGHI
Fabio Polenghi, an Italian photojournalist, has been shot dead in Bangkok, where he was covering violent confrontations between government troops and anti-government protesters in the Thai capital. The 48-year-old freelance photographer died on the way to hospital after being shot in the stomach as members of the military raided a camp set up by the anti-government 'Red Shirt' protesters. At least five people are believed to have been killed in the violence. Polenghi had been in Thailand for several days covering the protests for a European magazine. He is the second foreign journalist to have been killed during the violence. Reuters television cameraman Hiro Muramoto, a 43-year-old Japanese national, died last month after being shot in the chest during the protests.
27 MAY - GUATEMALA - ANIBAL ARCHILA
AnÃbal Archila, a Guatemalan reporter for Notisiete, was killed as he was reporting on the eruption of the Pacaya volcano. Firefighters and another journalist found his body near Cerro Chino. Archila, 32, had worked for 12 years as a journalist. Fellow worker Vinicio Fuentes said Archilla couldn't escape from the volcanic stone rain and was hit several times by lava and rocks. Archilla was lying in a foetal position, still holding his video camera.
28 MAY - PAKISTAN - EJAZUL HAQ
Television journalist Ejazul Haq was killed in Lahore while reporting through his mobile telephone when gunmen armed with grenades attacked two mosques. Reporters heard the shots that killed him in one of the mosques and his last words. Dozens of members of the Ahmadiyyah community were also killed in the twin attacks during Friday prayers. "It is tragic that [Mr. Haq] paid with his life for his professional dedication," said Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO. She voiced hope that the Pakistani authorities enhance the safety of media professionals, "who are being made to pay an unacceptably heavy sacrifice to the fundamental human right of freedom of speech and to our right to be informed of events that concern us."
31 MAY - TURKEY - CEVDET KILICLAR
Turkish photographer Cevdet Kiliçlar was reported killed by Israeli troops who stormed a flotilla of aid ships off the coast of Gaza. Witnesses said he was shot in the head when he pointed his camera at the commandos.Kiliçlar, 38, was from Kayseri. He was a graduate of Marmara University's Faculty of Communications and formerly a newspaper journalist for the National Gazette and the Anatolia Times. For the past year, he was a reporter and webmaster for the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH). He was married to Derya Kiliçlar, and had one daughter, Gülhan, and one son, Erdem.
JUNE
14 JUNE - PHILIPPINES - DESIDARIO CAMANGYAN
A gunman shot and killed a radio journalist as he hosted a singing contest before shocked spectators in the southern Philippines, police said. Desidario Camangyan of Sunshine FM radio died from a gunshot wound to the head inside the gymnasium of Davao Oriental province's Manay township, said Inspector Ariel Nueva, the town's police chief. Camangyan, 52, was sitting on stage when the attacker shot him from behind, Nueva told The Associated Press. The gunman escaped on foot. Police were trying to determine the motive, including if the attack was related to Camangyan's work as a broadcaster. The NUJP chapter in Davao said Camangyan's killing may have been linked to his commentaries against mining and illegal logging operations in Davao Oriental.
14 JUNE - HONDURAS - LUIS ARTURO MONDRAGON
A television reporter was shot dead outside his station, becoming the ninth journalist killed in Honduras this year, officials said. Two gunmen killed Luis Arturo Mondragon as he left Channel 19 station in Santa Clara de Danli, a town outside Tegucigalpa, Security Department spokesman Leonel Sauceda said. Mondragon had just finished broadcasting his show. Police have no suspects or clear motive, but are looking into criminal complaints filed against Mondragon last year for sexual assault and for stealing cattle, Sauceda said. "Both situations are still being investigated and could be key to the reasons the journalist lost his life," he said. International and local news-media advocacy groups have denounced a string of attacks on reporters since the June 28, 2009 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Colleagues said Mondragon backed the coup and was known in Danli for carrying a gun. Journalist and activists who opposed the coup have also been attacked.
The ambush occurred only a week after GDF reported on the murder of Shamil Aliyev, founder and head-manager of the radio stations Priboi and Vatan and director of the television network TNT-Makhachkala, whose car came under fire from unidentified attackers who fled the scene of the crime
15 JUNE - PHILIPPINES - LITO AGUSTIN
Lito Agustin, who hosted a programme on local radio station DZJC, was ambushed by two men as he and his nephew rode a motorbike in Laoag city, police chief Superintendent Sterling Blanco said. Agustin, 37, was killed in a volley of gunfire but his companion was unhurt. The identity of the attackers was not known. Agustin reportedly survived another attack three days before 10 May national elections, when unknown gunmen opened fire on his home in nearby Bacarra town. Andy Vital, news director for the station's parent outfit Manila Broadcasting, told AFP that Agustin may have been killed to silence him. "Agustin has been vocal in criticising graft and corruption in Bacarra," Vital said.
18 JUNE - AFGHANISTAN - SGT. JAMES P. HUNTER
Staff Sgt. James P. Hunter died when a patrol he was with was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Kandahar. He was the first army journalist killed in the Afghan conflict. The 25-year-old from South Amherst, Ohio, was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. In addition to his own reporting and photography, he also had public affairs duties to escort and assist other media outlets that covered the brigade. His stories ranged from detailing how the brigade trains prior to a deployment to features about accomplishments of individual soldiers. His reports from Iraq included how soldiers worked with the Sons of Iraq movement and about life returning to normal in a Baghdad neighborhood in 2008. His photographs captured curious Iraqi children following troops on patrols and Iraqi doctors and Army medics treating Iraqis.
19 JUNE - PHILIPPINES - NESTOR BEDOLIDO
Nestor Bedolido, a writer for a weekly newspaper, was gunned down while buying cigarettes at a street corner in Digos City in Davao Del Sur province, 1,050 kilometres south of Manila. Police ChiefInspector Anthony Padua said Bedolido suffered six gunshot wounds to the body. "The suspect casually walked away after the shooting and rode a motorcycle driven by another man," he said. Padua said bystanders rushed Bedolido to a nearby hospital, but he died on arrival.
Police were investigating a motive for the killing, he said.Colleagues said Bedolido was critical of a prominent politician in Davao Del Sur province and had authored a series of exposes against the official ahead of the May elections.
24 JUNE - BRAZIL - CLOVIS SILVA AGUIAR
Clovis Silva Aguiar, sports journalist, 48, was killed in the city of Imperatriz, in the northeastern state of Maranhão. The reporter was at the door of his house when two men on a motorcycle fired three shots. He worked in the program 'Open Space', Capital TV, an affiliate of Rede TV chain inImperatriz. The police assumed that this was a homicide charge and arrested a suspect.
25 JUNE - RWANDA - JEAN LEONARD RUGAMBAGE
A journalist working for a private newspaper has been shot dead in front of his house in the Rwandan capital. Witnesses say Jean Leonard Rugambage, the acting editor of Umuvugizi newspaper, was fired on by two men who then fled in a car. The authorities had recently suspended the paper, prompting it to start publishing online instead. The paper's exiled chief editor has blamed the government. Editor Jean Bosco Gasasira, who fled to Uganda in April after his paper was suspended, said the Kigali government had master-minded the assassination of Mr Rugambage who died in hospital after the shooting. "I'm 100% sure it was the office of the national security services which shot him dead," he told Voice of America. Mr Gasasira said it was because of an article published on the Umuvugizi website relating to the attempted killing last weekend of former army chief Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa. Rwanda has denied accusations it was behind the shooting of Lt Gen Nyamwasa. Police said they had arrested two men and one of them admitted killing the journalist. Internal Security Minister Moussa Fazil Harelimana said the man had told police he killed Rugambage in revenge because the journalists had killed his brother in the 1994 Tutsi genocide. Rugambage was acquitted in 2006 by a grass-roots court of participating in the genocide.
29 JUNE - PAKISTAN - FAIZ MUHAMMAD SASOLI
Faiz Muhammad Sasoli, a reporter based in Khuzdar District, in the south-western province of Balochistan, was killed by submachinegun fire. Sasoli, who worked for the Aaj Kal daily newspaper and the Independent News of Pakistan agency, had escaped two previous murder attempts. He is the sixth media worker to be killed in Pakistan since the start of this year
JULY
2 JULY - INDIA - HEMCHANDRA PANDEY
Hemchandra Pandey, a freelance journalist, was killed alongside top Maoist leader and spokesperson Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad in Andhra Pradesh. Pandey was working as a journalist for the Hindi newspaper Nayi Duniya in Chhattisgarh. State home minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy said an investigation would establish whether Pandey was a journalist or not. She gave the assurance to Pandey's widow Bhavitha, who met her at the state secretariat, senior government sources said. In a memorandum submitted to the home minister, a sobbing Bhavitha alleged that the police killed Pandey in a "stage-managed encounter". "My husband was not a Maoist. He was a freelance journalist in Uttarakhand," she said and demanded stern action against the erring police officials. Defending the government, and refuting the fake encounter charge, Reddy said the CPI (Maoist) had said in a press release that Pandey was a Maoist.
6 JULY - MEXICO - HUGO OLIVERA
Hugo Olivera, 27, a journalist and co-owner with his father of the daily El Dia de Michoacan, had gone missing for a day before his body was found inside his car, in front of a shooting range, in the small town of Buenavista Tomatlan. Olivera was a crime reporter.
10 JULY - MEXICO - MARCO AURELIO MARTINEZ TIJERINA
10 JULY - MEXICO - GUILLERMO ALCARAZ TREJO
Mexican journalists Marco Aurelio Martinez Tijerina and Guillermo Alcaraz Trejo were killed in separate incidents in the northern states of Chihuahua and Nuevo Leon.
Radio journalist Martinez, 45, was found dead Saturday in Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon, hours after he was snatched off the street by gunmen traveling in three vehicles, RSF said. Martinez was producer and host of a news program on regional broadcaster XEDD Radio La Tremenda, as well as a former correspondent for TV Azteca. The 24-year-old Alcaraz, who oversaw the video section of the Web site of the Chihuahua human rights commission, was gunned down while leaving the Chihuahua city offices of the newspaper OMNIA. Alcaraz had gone to the "Omnia" offices to say hello to his former colleagues and was waiting for his girlfriend in his car outside the building when several people in a moving vehicle opened fire and shot him. It appeared that Alcaraz tried to start his car to escape but he quickly lost control and crashed into a tree. The assailants fired more than 40 rounds from AK-47 assault rifles. Marco Aurelio MartÃnez Tijerina, a journalist from Montemorelos, Nuevo León, was kidnapped on 9 July and was found dead the following day. He was the presenter of the radio show "Informativo 800" at XEDD Radio La Tremenda and was formerly the news director for XERN Radio Naranjera 950 AM and a correspondent for TV Azteca, Grupo Multimedios and W Radio.
11 JULY - UGANDA - STEPHEN TINKA
Ugandan broadcast journalist, Stephen Tinka, was among those killed in the blasts that rocked Kampala city during the screening of the World Cup final match. Tinka, who had a night programme and hosted a Saturday morning magazine show died the following day, after spending the night in a critical condition.
19 JULY - GREECE - SOCRATES GIOLIAS
Athens journalist Socrates Giolias was killed by unidentified individuals at dawn, who riddled him with bullets outside his home in the Ilioupolis suburb of Athens. His wife told the police that an unknown man rang the doorbell of their apartment at about 5.20 a.m. and when Giolias opened the door told him that someone was attempting to steal his car outside the apartment building.When Giolias descended to the building entrance where he had parked his car, he was shot several times, dying on the spot.
Police have collected some 20 cartridges from the scene. The perpetrators, tentatively believed to be three, fled in a car.
Giolias was a director of the national news radio station "Thema 9.89," and also wrote for the blog, Troktiko, which often reported on scandals. He also worked closely with Makis Triandafylopoulos, a Greek journalist, famous for his investigative reporting. Giolias' wife, who has suffered a strong shock, and the couple's young child were in the apartment at the time of the killing.
21 JULY - INDIA - VIJAY PRATAP SINGH
Indian Express Senior Reporter Vijay Pratap Singh was injured in the blast outside an Uttar Pradesh minister's house in Allahabad. He remained in critical state and died ten days later. Prior to joining the Express he worked with The Leader and The Times of India. Vijay Pratap Singh was 38 years old. He is survived by a wife and two young children.
22 JULY - NEPAL - DEVI PRASAD DHITAL
Dhital, chairman of the Tulsipur FM radio station, was killed by a group of five men who shot at him as he emerged from the home of a school teacher and political associate in his home town Tulsipur, in Nepal's far-western district of Dang.
26 JULY - INDONESIA - MUHAMMAD SYAIFULLAH
Syaifullah, Borneo bureau chief with Indonesia's biggest daily newspaper Kompas, was found dead at his home in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan province. As he was known for his uncompromising reporting on environmental issues many of his colleagues believe he was poisoned.
30 JULY - INDONESIA - ARDIANSYAH MATRA'IS
A search team in West Papua, Indonesia, found the body of local reporter Ardiansyah Matra'is, in a river, two days after the journalist had been reported missing. Matra'is was found naked and handcuffed, according to Radio New Zealand International.
Matra'is, a reporter for local broadcaster Merauke TV, had received several text messages over the previous week in the run up to local elections, according to Indonesian news reports. The journalist, who had worked as a stringer for TV station Anteve and as a reporter for Papua's Rajawali daily before joining Merauke TV, had been reported missing since 28 July, when local residents found his motorcycle and helmet near a bridge in Merauke, a small town in Papua.
A number of other local journalists had also complained to the police about receiving threatening text messages, local police said. According to the Jakarta Globe, one of the threatening text messages read: "To cowardly journalists, never play with fire if you don't want to be burned. If you still want to make a living on this land, don't do weird things. We have data on all of you and be prepared for death."
The cause of Matra'is' death has yet to be determined; local newspapers report that the family has been reluctant to have an autopsy performed. Local police are investigating.
AUGUST
03 AUGUST - LEBANON - ASSAF ABU RAHHAL
Assaf Abu Rahhal was killed in clashes between the Israeli and Lebanese armies, according to the website Now Lebanon. It said the 55-year-old, a journalist for Al-Akhbar, was reporting on the fighting from the southern Lebanese town of Aadiseh. Ali Shaib, a correspondent with Al-Manar television was also believed to have been wounded whilst covering the fighting.
09 AUGUST - TOGO - FAUSTIN YEKINI RADJI
Radji, a journalist with Golfe Info was mortally injured in a car accident on 6 August and died three days later.
21 AUGUST - INDONESIA - RIDWAN SALAMUN
SUN-TV journalist Ridwan Salamun was killed as he attempted to cover clashes between two warring villages in Tual in Southeast Maluku. Ridwan Salamun, 28, was found dead during a fight between the villages of Banda Ely and Fiditan. He had suffered fatal injuries from a spear and a cut to his head. He is survived by his wife and a 3-year-old son.
24 AUGUST - SOMALIA - BARKHAT AWALE
Veteran radio journalist Barkhat Awale was killed by crossfire in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Awale, 60, director of the community radio station Hurma Radio, was on the roof of the station assisting a technician in fixing the station's transmitter when a stray bullet hit him in the stomach. His colleagues rushed him to Madina Hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Awale had worked in the media for the last 30 years and was director of Hurma Radio for the past four, the National Union of Somali Journalists reported.
24 AUGUST - HONDURAS - ISRAEL ZELAYA
Veteran journalist Israel Zelaya was killed hours after being kidnapped by gunmen in the city of San Pedro Sula. His body was found in a sugar cane plantation near the city of Villanueva. Three months earlier,the 62-year-old radio commentator for Radio International in San Pedro Sula had complained to authorities that a group of strangers had set his house on fire. Police have no suspects or a motive in the killing.
SEPTEMBER
1 SEPTEMBER - SOMALIA - ABDULAHI OMAR GEDI
Abdulahi Omar Gedi, was attacked as he left the newsroom by unidentified assailants who stabbed him at the chest and the legs in Garsoor village. He died from his wounds on his way to the General Hospital of Galkayo. Gedi,25,was newscaster and reporter and worked for Radio Daljir branch in Galkayo.
4 SEPTEMBER - PAKISTAN - ALI REZA
Ali Raza, was severely injured in the triple bomb blast that hit the city of Lahore. Ali Raza was a reporter in a local newspaper and was covering the Shia procession in connection with Yaum-e-Ali on September 1st. He was transported to Meo Hospital for medical care but died two days later.
6 SEPTEMBER - AFGHANISTAN - SAYED HAMID NOORI
Sayed Hamid Noori was found stabbed to death outside his home in Kabul. Noori, 45, was a well-known TV news anchor at the state-owned broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan. Noori had left home after receiving a series of phone calls, suggesting that he either knew his assailants or had been set up. He was vice president of Afghanistan's Association of Independent Journalists (AIJ) and a teacher of young journalists.
6 SEPTEMBER - PAKISTAN - AIJAZ RAISANI
In a suicide attack that took place during a religious procession in the city of Quetta, the capital city of Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, Aijaz Raisani, 30, a camera operator for "Samaa TV", was injured in the blast and also received two bullet wounds, died of his injuries two days later.
7 SEPTEMBER - IRAQ - RIYADH AL SARRAY
The prominent Iraqi television presenter Riyadh al-Sarray has been shot dead in Baghdad. Unknown gunmen in a speedy car intercepted the car of al-Sarray in Harithiya area of Baghdad and killed him by silenced pistols. Mr al-Sarray, who presented religious and political programmes on the state-run television al-Iraqiya TV, was killed as he was heading for work.He was known for his attempts to narrow sectarian differences in Iraq.The 35-year-old lawyer joined the state broadcaster in 2005.
8 SEPTEMBER - ANGOLA - ALBERTO GRAVES CHAKUSSANGA
Alberto Graves Chakussanga, a radio journalist with a station critical of the ruling MPLA government, was found lying in a corridor of his home in Luanda's Viana district with a bullet in his back. He had been the presenter of a weekly, Umbundu-language news call-in program on private Radio Despertar. Chakussanga, 32, was also a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Agostinho Neto state university and at the Angolan police academy. A few hours before his death, Chakussanga had left his pregnant wife at a hospital where she gave birth later that day to a baby boy.
8 SEPTEMBER - IRAQ - SAFA AL DIN ABDEL HAMID
Safa al-Din Abdel Hamid, an Al-Mosuliya television presenter was shot as he was leaving for work in front of his Mosul home by gunmen firing from a speeding car. A father of six, Abdel Hamid had worked less than a year at Al-Mosuliya, a private channel that broadcasts in northern Iraq. His program "Our Mosques," detailed the history of historic religious sites in Mosul.
11 SEPTEMBER - ECUADOR - MAYRA EMILIA AGUILAR DUENAS
The bodies of Dueñas, manager of Milagro City TV, and her husband, Manuel Antonio Maridueña Alvarado, who used to work for the municipal government of Yaguachi, were found in a river in the province of Guayas. They were both tortured before being killed. The attorney of Yaguachi did not discard that the crime could be related to Aguilar's work.
11 SEPTEMBER - UGANDA - PAUL KIGGUNDU
Commercial motor cyclists locally known as bodabodas in Rakai district have beaten a Top radio correspondent Paul Kiggundu to death. Kiggundu joined the Masaka based Top Radio eight months ago as an area for Rakai district in Southern Buganda. The cyclists pounced on him when he was recording scenes of demolition of the homestead of a suspected motorcycle robber Frank Kagayi who they also accused of killing their fellow cyclist Sengooba Eddie. Despite his efforts to identify himself as a journalist, they beat Kiggundu into comma. He died before he could be rushed to Kalisizo government hospital. Kiggundu survived with one wife and four children. May his Soul Rest in Peace.
14 SEPTEMBER - PAKISTAN - MISRI KHAN ORAKZAI
Misri Khan, president of the journalists association in Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, was shot dead early today as he was entering the press club, eyewitness and co-journalist said. Khan died after being taken to a Hangu district hospital.The son of the slain journalist, said the family had no dispute or enmity with anyone in the area, and added that the incident was the result of his reporting
15 SEPTEMBER - UGANDA - DICKSON SSENTONGO
Unidentified assailants beat and killed news presenter Dickson Ssentongo at 5 a.m. as he was trying to catch a bus in Nantabulirirwa village, 43 miles (70 kilometers) from the Kireka-based Prime Radio station. Assailants beat Ssentongo with metal bars and dragged him into a nearby cassava field. A local farmer found Ssentongo alive at 9 a.m. rushed him to Mulago Hospital, where he died several hours later. Ssentongo, 29, had worked as Lugandan news presenter for Prime Radio for two years and a part-time court assessor for the Mukono High Court.
16 SEPTEMBER - MEXICO - LUIS CARLOS SANTIAGO OROZCO
Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco, an "El Diario" photojournalist in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, was killed on 16 September 2010. He and his colleague were the target of a gunfire attack in the parking lot of a shopping mall, which left the second journalist in critical condition in hospital. The incident took place around 2:30 p.m. at the Rio Grande mall. The journalists, who were working at the newspaper as part of a scholarship programme, were eating at one of the mall's restaurants only streets away from the paper's offices after spending the morning at a photography course. Both were surprised by armed attackers while they were driving in a gray Nissan Platina in the mall's parking lot. Santiago Orozco, who was 21 and had been driving the vehicle, died at the scene. According to "El Diario" reporters, the attackers fired at the journalist from a moving vehicle. Santiago Orozco was shot in the head and lost control of the vehicle, crashing into two other parked cars. Federal police who arrived at the crime scene were able to obtain the photography equipment belonging to the injured journalist and Crime Scene Unit officers were going to use the contents of the memory card in their investigations. Nine 9mm caliber bullets were found at the scene. As well, the car that Santiago Orozco was driving had been lent to him by the family of Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, who had worked for the State Human Rights Commission before he left the country after receiving a death threat. Santiago Orozco had kept in touch with de la Rosa Hickerson. Accounts from other journalists said that the injured journalist had only been working for "El Diario" for two weeks and that he had mainly been working on stories about safety issues. Santiago Orozco was about to be made a full-time employee because of the "high quality of his work", said paper executives.
17 SEPTEMBER - PAKISTAN - MUJEEBUR REHMAN SADDIQUI
Mujeebur Rehman Saddiqui, a correspondent of the daily Pakistan was shot by unidentified gunmen when he came out of a mosque after evening prayers in Dargai.He died from two bullet wounds at his arrival at the Peshawar Hospital.Saddiqui, 39, was a founder member of the Press Club in Malakand area and has been in the profession for the last two decades. He was also a famous poet of the area. He had reportedly received a number of death threats from militants for his uncompromising reporting. Saddiqui is survived by two sons, a daughter and a widow.
28 SEPTEMBER - GUATEMALA - VICTOR HUGO JUAREZ
Unidentified assailants tortured and killed Guatemalan journalist Victor Hugo Juarez in a residential area just outside the capital, his family said Tuesday. Juarez, who was killed in the attack along with Byron Davila Diaz, the 38-year-old owner of a small graphic design company, owned two online news sites: Wanima News and Guatemala Empresarial.
The bodies, which police said were found Monday at Davila's home, were tied up in a bed, showed signs of torture and strangulation, according to an official report. Juarez, 50, had reported for the daily Siglo XXI and, more recently, for the sports section of Nuestro Diario newspaper. Juarez had received death threats prior to his death.
OCTOBER
4 OCTOBER - IRAQ - TAHRIR KADHIM JAWAD
Freelance cameraman Tahrir Kadhim Jawad, 27, died instantly after a bomb attached to his car exploded in Garma, 50 miles west of Baghdad. Jawad was driving to the capital to deliver footage when the bomb exploded. He had worked as a journalist for seven years, first as an editor with the weekly Al-Karma, and then as a freelance cameraman who supplied numerous television broadcasters with footage. Jawad is survived by his wife and five children.
14 OCTOBER - COLOMBIA - RODOLFO MAYA ARICAPE
Two gunmen shot Maya, a journalist and a leader of the local indigenous community, in his home in rural Caloto in southwest Cauca province, according to the Bogotá-based Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP) and CPJ interviews. Maya, 34, was a correspondent for Radio Payumat, a community radio station that is part of a network operated by the Association of Indigenous Councils in Norte del Cauca (ACÃN). Maya covered political issues and the civil conflict in the region, according to Jorge Arias, an ACÃN representative. Maya's newsgathering activities were closely tied to his role as an indigenous leader, Arias said. Two weeks before the murder, graffiti in Caloto accused Maya and other indigenous leaders of being members of the leftist guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), CPJ sources said. Arias told CPJ that it was difficult to establish whether Maya was killed for his journalism or his role as an indigenous community leader. No police investigation had been initiated as of early December, local authorities told CPJ. Arias said indigenous officials were conducting an investigation of their own.
18 OCTOBER - BRAZIL - FRANCISCO GOMES DE MEDEIROS
Crime reporter Francisco Gomes de Medeiros died after being shot five times outside his home in the north-western city of Caicos. The 48-year-old radio journalist and popular blogger had received several death threats, many of them after he broke a story on vote-rigging in the run-up to Brazilian general elections, held on 3 October. The story reported that local politicians were bribing voters with crack cocaine. On Wednesday 20 October, local authorities confirmed they believed the killing to be linked to Medeiros' work.
According to the Associated Press, police have arrested a former prisoner, Joao Francisco dos Santos, who confessed he killed Medeiros because he felt that coverage of a robbery he committed in 2007 convinced the judge to sentence him to 18 months in jail instead of the seven months he expected. However, police are continuing their investigations despite the confession.
NOVEMBER
5 NOVEMBER - MEXICO - CARLOS GUAJARDO
Newspaper reporter Carlos Guajardo was killed in a shootout between marines and gunmen in the Mexican border city of Matamoros. Local media said Guajardo was leaving the scene of the shootout in his car when it was hit more than twenty times.
21 NOVEMBER - IRAQ - MAZIN AL-BAGHDADI
Gunmen shot and killed a young Iraqi journalist in front of his family in the northern city of Mosul, an official at the Interior Ministry said. Mazin al-Baghdadi worked as a reporter and anchor for al-Mousiliyya TV. Gunmen in civilian clothing showed up at his home around 6 p.m. and identified themselves to his father as intelligence officers, the ministry official said. When al-Baghdadi exited to his house to speak with the men, they shot him. His family was looking on when the shooting occurred, according to the official
18 NOVEMBER - PAKISTAN - ABDUL HAMEED HAYATAN
The body of Abdul Hameed Hayatan, a young Baloch journalist who was kidnapped in the southwestern port city of Gwadar, Pakistan, on 25 October was found beside the River Sami in Turbat, 40 km to the east, on 18 November. His reporting critical of the Pakistani authorities and his support for the Baloch national movement were almost certainly the motive for his abduction and murder. Hayatan was shot in the head and chest. Marks on his body clearly indicated that he was tortured before being killed. The body of a student, Hamid Ismail, was found alongside Hayatan's. In a reference to a Muslim Eid (festival) that has just ended, a message found with the bodies said: "Eid present for the Baloch people." Journalists based in Balochistan told Reporters Without Borders that Hayatan was probably murdered by members of the security forces (who are fighting Baloch armed separatists) or a Jihadi group.
DECEMBER
5 DECEMBER - PAKISTAN - ALTAF CHANDIO
Altaf Chandio, the president of the Mirpurkhas in Sindh and bureau chief of the private Sindhi language channel, AWAZ (voice), was gunned down outside his house by unidentified attackers. They knocked at his door and shot him as he answered it. He was fatally wounded and died on the way to hospital. Police are investigating the murder but have not yet revealed the motive for the killing.
6 DECEMBER - PAKISTAN - ABDUL WAHAB
6 DECEMBER - PAKISTAN - PERVEZ KHAN
Abdul Wahab, of Express News, and Pervez Khan, of WAQT TV, were among 50 people at a government building in Ghalanai, Mohmand Agency, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in the country's north-west who were killed in a suicide bombing. The purported leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility, Pakistan's Daily Times reported. A further 100 people, including journalist Mohab Ali Mohmand, were wounded in the attack in which two suicide bombers disguised as policemen targeted a tribal meeting of a peace committee of Alizai and Safi tribes at the office of Roshan Khan Mehsud, the Daily Times reported. The meeting was called to devise a strategy against terrorism in the tribal region. Wahab, aged in his mid-30s, and Khan, aged about 28, were preparing a report on the plight of displaced people at the time, according to Mohmand Press Club President Shakirullah Jan.
10 DECEMBER - PHILIPPINES - EDISON FLAMENIA
A Filipino journalist, Edison Flamenia Sr, was shot dead in an attack in the troubled southern region of Mindanao as he was walking home in the village of Tabudok in Labangan town. Flamenia was writing for the Mindanao Inquirer. The motive is still unknown and his family has appealed to authorities to search and arrest the killer. Dozens of journalists had been killed in the Philippines in recent years and international media organizations branded the country as one of the world's most dangerous places for journalists.
20 DECEMBER - INDIA - SUSIL PATHAK
Sushil Pathak was shot dead by unidentified people in the Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh. The 35-year-old, who was a journalist with Dainik Bhaskar, was returning home from work at around 2am and had parked his car in a nearby street when he was shot. Pathak was found by a fellow journalist lying in a pool of blood after the assailants fled. He was declared dead at hospital
24 DECEMBER - NIGERIA - AUGUSTINE SINDYI
Plateau State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has regretted the death of one of its members, Mr. Augustine Sindyi, a photo journalist with Nigeria Standard Newspapers in the bomb explosion in Jos, the state capital. The union said Mr. Sindyi was at scene of the multiple bomb blasts at Kabong in Jos North Local Government Area of the state and was among the first casualties who died on the spot. Syindi was an experienced photo journalist and is survived by a wife and children.
28 DECEMBER - HONDURAS - HENRY SUAZO
A radio reporter has been gunned down outside his home in Honduras, one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists. Police say Henry Suazo was killed as he left his home in the coastal town of La Masica. The 38-year-old reporter worked for HRN radio and Cablevision del Atlantico television. A police statement said nobody has been arrested and the motive is unknown.
Total number of Journalists' Deaths as of 28 December 2010 95
JANUARY
05 JANUARY - BULGARIA - BORIS NIKOLOV TSANKOV
Tsankov was going to meet his lawyer in Sofia, accompanied by his two bodyguards, when the gunmen struck, shooting him in the heart. He died on the spot and his bodyguards were wounded. The gunmen escaped. Tsankov, who had published a book a month earlier about the mafia in Bulgaria, reported receiving death threats following its publication and had requested police protection. He had survived a previous attempt to his life in 2004.
07 JANUARY- MEXICO- VALENTIN VALDES ESPINOSA
Valentin Valdes Espinosa, a reporter for the Zocalo of Saltillo newspaper, and two other journalists were intercepted by two trucks full of gunmen late Thursday. Valdes Espinosa's body, bound, gagged and bearing five bullet holes, was found Friday morning. Tacked to it: a written warning of the kind often left by drug traffickers. The two reporters with Valdes Espinosa were let go or got away, authorities said.
Valdes Espinosa, 28, is the third journalist slain in Mexico in the last 18 days. Mexico in 2009 had earned the unwanted designation of the most dangerous country for the news media in the Western Hemisphere.
09 JANUARY- AFGHANISTAN- RUPERT HAMER
The defence correspondent of Britain's Sunday Mirror newspaper has become the first British journalist to be killed while covering the war in Afghanistan. Rupert Hamer, 39, was accompanying a US Marine Corps patrol when an explosion from a device hidden outside a small village hit the vehicle he was travelling in on Saturday. The photographer Philip Coburn, 43, who had worked with Mr Hamer in several war zones, suffered severe leg injuries in the attack. He was in a serious but stable condition in the British military hospital at Camp Bastion in Helmand.
The explosion, which also killed one US Marine and seriously wounded four, brought to 18 the number of journalists who have died in Afghanistan since the 9/11 attacks as they seek to cover the US-led invasion and its aftermath. It is the first time that a British reporter has been killed in the conflict and Mr Hamer is the first UK correspondent to die in a warzone since the death of ITN's Terry Lloyd in Iraq in 2003.
09 JANUARY- ANGOLA- STANISLAS OCLOO
Togolese sports journalist Stanislas Ocloo, 35, was killed in the attack on the Togo national soccer team's bus in the northwestern Angolan enclave of Cabinda. As many as three people were killed and nine wounded in the strike, CNN reported. Ocloo, a contributor to sports programs on national broadcaster Télévision Togolaise (TVT) and the communications chief of the Togolese soccer association, died on Saturday morning, hours before the kick-off of the African Nations Cup he was going to cover, according to news reports. TVT presenter Blaise Amedodji, who appeared with Ocloo on a weekly sports program called "Club of Saturday" since 2007, told CPJ the journalist had planned to carry out interviews with African soccer stars for the station. Angolan authorities announced the arrests of two suspects in connection with the attack, which was claimed by the separatist Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda, according to news reports. There has been a low-level insurgency for regional independence for decades.
According to local journalists, hooded gunmen opened fire on the team bus some 15 minutes after it crossed into Cabinda from neighboring Republic of Congo. Togo pulled out of the tournament and a national three-day mourning period began today. The Union of Independent Journalists of Togo called the incident "savage aggression" and called on Angolan authorities to assume responsibility for the security lapse.
Ocloo began his journalism career in 1995 as a consultant with a youth program on private station Tropic FM, then reported with Avenir FM before joining Togo's first sports station, Sport FM, in 2001, according to Amedodji. Ocloo had become engaged last month, according to local journalists.
16 JANUARY - MEXICO - JOSE LUIS ROMERO
Mexican police said on Saturday they found the body of a crime reporter abducted last month by apparent drug traffickers. The remains of radio journalist Jose Luis Romero were discovered wrapped in plastic near the city of Los Mochis in the western state of Sinaloa, a hotspot in Mexico's drug war. The latest victim in an upsurge of attacks on the media, Romero was kidnapped on December 30 at a seafood restaurant. His hands and a leg were broken before he was shot to death, police said. Attacks on the media have mounted as drug gangs seek to silence journalists who report on the drug killings.
29 JANUARY - MEXICO - JORGE OCHOA MARTINEZ
The editor-in-chief of the El Sol de la Costa newspaper has been murdered in southern Mexico, the Guerrero state Public Safety Secretariat said. Jorge Ochoa Martinez's body was found Friday night in Ayutla de los Libres, a city located some 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the tourist resort of Acapulco. Ochoa Martinez was shot in the face, the secretariat said.
Police in Ayutla found the body while responding to a call about a "dead man inside an automobile" a short distance from city hall, the secretariat said. The gunmen who killed the journalist fled in a vehicle, eyewitnesses said.
No arrests have been made and the motive for the killing has not been determined.
FEBRUARY
07 FEBRUARY - NEPAL - JAMIM SHAH
Jamim Shah, Chairman of Spacetime Network Pvt. Ltd., was shot dead in Kathmandu by unknown assailants riding a motorcycle. Media tycoon Shah was well known in Nepal for, among other things, having introduced Cable TV to the country.
13 FEBRUARY-YEMEN-MOHAMMED SHU'I AL-RABU'I
Mohammed Shu'i Al-Rabu'i, a correspondent for several news media including the opposition newspaper "Al-Qahira", was gunned down in the district of Beni Qais, 120 km northwest of Sanaa. Those allegedly responsible have been arrested.
Al-Rabu'i, 34, was reportedly shot dead at his home by four or five individuals who were arrested after attacking him in late 2009 but were released before charges were brought.
"The murderers have been arrested and will be punished," Beni Qais security chief Abdelrazeq Az-Zareq said, adding that he took "full responsibility" for their release at the end of 2009.
Al-Rabu'i had worked for more than 10 years for "Al-Qahira", published by the Islamic Reform Grouping (Al-Islah), the main opposition party. In the last legislative elections, in 2003, Al-Islah won 22.6 per cent of the vote and 46 of the 301 seats in parliament.
Respect for press freedom worsened last year in Yemen but this is the first time that a journalist has been murdered in violence against independent or opposition news media since North and South Yemen merged in 1990.
17 FEBRUARY - PAKISTAN - HAMEED MARWAT
Unidentified gunmen shot dead Hameed Marwat, a journalist at the Sariab Road in Quetta. Police said the gunmen opened fire at him as he came out of his house.
17 FEBRUARY - PAKISTAN - ASHFAQ MANGI
Ashfaq Mangi, a reporter of a private television channel was shot dead by unknown men in front of the Gambat Post Office in Khairpur.
MARCH
01 MARCH - HONDURAS - JOSEPH HERNÃNDEZ OCHOA
Journalist Joseph Hernández Ochoa of the privately-owned Canal 51 TV station was shot dead in Tegucigalpa.Ochoa, who hosted an entertainment program on the station, was driving fellow colleague Karol Cabrera home when their car came under fire.
Supposedly the target of the attack,Cabrera survived. A total of 36 bullet impacts were found in her car. A very outspoken journalist at Canal 8 TV and Radio Cadena Voces (RCV), Cabrera had already reported receiving threats. In December 2009,she was victim of a similar ambush, which took the life of her 16 years old daughter.
2 MARCH - NEPAL - ARUN SIMHANIYA
Arun Simhaniya, publisher of the Janakpur daily newspaper, was returning home when gunmen riding on motorcycles shot and killed him.
The publisher of a daily newspaper in southern Nepal, Simhaniya was shot three times and died before reaching the hospital.
A little-known group calling themselves the Rajan Liberation Group called local newspaper offices in the area and claimed responsibility for the attack.
Janakpur is about 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of the capital, Katmandu.
06 MARCH - INDIA - MUKESH KUMAR
A 35-year-old photo journalist was killed when the car in which he was travelling hit a roadside tree in Puri district of Orissa, police said on Sunday. The accident occurred near Pipili Saturday when Mukesh Kumar, who was working as photographer with Aaj Tak television channel, was traveling from Puri to Bhubaneswar.
Kumar was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, they said. He is survived by his wife and a six-month-old son.
A reporter of the Hindi news channel Pravat Kumar, who was travelling with Mukesh, sustained grievous injuries and was undergoing treatment.
11 MARCH - HONDURAS - DAVID MEZA MONTESINOS
Radio journalist David Meza Montesinos became the second Honduran journalist to be murdered since the start of the year, following the fatal shooting of TV journalist Joseph Ochoa of Canal 51 on 1 March. Meza was shot by unidentified gunmen in an ambush near his home in the Atlantic coast city of La Ceiba, where he worked for local radio station El Patio as well as for Radio América, a national station, and Abriendo Brecha, a TV station. An often controversial journalist, he reported getting threats three weeks ago after a report about drug trafficking.
12 MARCH - MEXICO - EVARISTO PACHECO SOLIS
Mexican reporter Evaristo Pacheco SolÃs was found shot to death in the city of Chilpancingo, in the crime-ravaged state of Guerrero, news reports said. Pacheco, 33, a reporter with the weekly Visión Informativa, was shot several times with a small calibre pistol, and his body was left along the side of a rural road, according to local news reports. Family members identifie
14 MARCH - HONDURAS - NAHUM PALACIOS
Honduran journalist Nahum Palacios was murdered in the northeastern city of Tocoa, becoming the third media professional to die violently in the Central American country over the past two weeks, police said. The killing occurred around 10.30 p.m. Sunday when Palacios, 36, was driving to his home in the Los Pinos neighbourhood, police spokesperson Leonel Sauceda told reporters. Palacios worked for Radio Tocoa and a television channel serving the province of Colon. Several men travelling in two vehicles intercepted Palacios and opened fire, according to the police report. Sauceda said that Palacios's automobile was hit by 42 bullets.
19 MARCH - COLOMBIA - CLODOMIRO CASTILLA
Clodomiro Castilla, a reporter and announcer at La Voz de Monteria radio, was gunned down on his front porch Friday night, said Jaime Cuervo, a judicial investigator in Cordoba state. Castilla, a 50-year-old father of four, had reported on far-right drug-funded militias known as paramilitaries and their friendly ties to the area's business elite. Cordoba has long been a paramilitary stronghold. Police had no immediate suspects in the killing and offered a $26,000 reward for leads. Castilla's employer said he had received threats and was assigned bodyguards for two years until last year.
22 MARCH - ECUADOR - JORGE SANTANA CARBONELL
Jorge Santana Carbonell, director of the weekly Tribune and news presenter on Channel CQ15 in the southern city of Pasaje, died after spending seven days in a coma following a suspicious road accident. Santana was hit by a car on 16 March as he rode his motorbike. He told the ambulance crew he was being chased. It was widely assumed the incident was related to crime stories he had written for the Tribune, but this could not be confirmed.
26 MARCH - HONDURAS - JOSE BAYARDO
26 MARCH - HONDURAS - MANUEL DE JESUS JUAREZ
Two journalists have been shot to death in eastern Honduras, bringing to five the number of media workers killed in the Central American country this month. Radio journalists Jose Bayardo, 52, and Manuel de Jesus Juarez, 55, were riddled with bullets as they drove on a highway in the rural province of Olancho, prosecutor Wendy Caballero said, adding investigators have not yet established a motive. The two were killed after leaving the Excelsior radio station, where they had just broadcast a news show.
APRIL
04 APRIL - TURKEY - METIN ALATAS
34-year-old Metin Alataş, a journalist working for Azadiya Welat daily newspaper published in Kurdish, was found dead in the Hadırlı district of Adana in the predominantly Kurdish region of south-eastern Turkey on 4 April. Nobody had heard from Alataş since he had gone to the district and distributed copies of the daily on 3 April. Alataş was found hanged in a tree. Alataş had been subject of an assault four months earlier. Five unidentified people approached him in a car with an Adana number plate when the journalist distributed newspaper copies in front of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) building on 22 December 2009. Atalaş was beaten and had to undergo medical treatment in hospital. bianet, the independent media forum website, spoke to diplomacy service editor Hakkı Boltan who said: "There are contradictory aspects in our opinion. It will be clear soon. In times when our employees are encountering such intense pressure, we think there is still the possibility that Alataş was killed by illegal forces or that he was forced to commit suicide." Police are investigating.
05 APRIL - DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO - PATIENT CHIBEYA
A Congolese journalist was shot dead by men in military fatigues, in front of his home in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Beni. Well-known cameraman Patient Chibeya, 35, who worked for Radio Television Nationale Congolaise (RTVN), had just got off a motorcycle taxi in front of his home when he was approached by as many as seven armed men in military fatigues, at around 10:00 pm. An AFP report said Chibeya was hit by six bullets.
Muhinda Wema Kennedy, a Congolese journalist who knew Chibeya very well, told the International Press Institute: "It must have been pre-meditated. His wife tried to intervene, but they said they had come to get him." Kennedy said it was possible Chibeya, who often filmed official events, possessed footage that might have been "damaging" to someone. "This was not a hold-up, it was a carefully prepared operation," Beni mayor Mufunza Bayengo told Reporters Without Borders. "We firmly condemn this unfortunate event."
07 APRIL - SOUTH AFRICA - THABO KGONGOANA
A journalist was shot dead during an armed robbery at a hotel and casino in Mafikeng, police said. Colonel Lesego Metsi said Thabo Kgongoana was shot from close range with an AK-47 rifle. "He was shot dead from behind through the chest. What could have led to this killing is not yet known. It is suspected that they realised he had a camera and so he was shot." Mmabatho Palms Hotel Casino said Kgongoana, editor of the Mahikeng-based TaxiTimes, died as he was leaving the hotel after attending a government function.
09 APRIL - THAILAND - HIRO MURAMOTO
A Reuters television cameraman was shot dead during a violent clash between Thai troops and anti-government protesters in Bangkok that killed 12 people. Hiro Muramoto, a 43-year-old Japanese national, was shot in the chest and arrived at Klang Hospital without a pulse, hospital Director Dr Pichaya Nakwatchara said. dren. He had been covering fighting between troops and protesters in the Rajdumnoen Road area where soldiers opened fire with rubber bullets and tear gas, as well as live rounds into the air, in Bangkok's worst political violence in 18 years. Muramoto, who had worked for Reuters in Tokyo for more than 15 years, was married with two children.
10 APRIL - MEXICO - ENRIQUE VILLICANA PALOMARES
The body of a kidnapped Mexican journalist has been found with his throat slit, federal prosecutors said Sunday. The family of Enrique Villicana Palomares, a columnist for the daily newspaper The Voice of Michoacan in central Mexico, reported him missing last week after he didn't make it to a university where he taught writing. Federal prosecutors said in a written statement that his body was found Saturday in the state capital, Morelia, after someone demanded a ransom. The statement did not say whether a ransom was paid, and prosecutors were not available. Investigators have not determined if Palomares was targeted because of his work as a journalist. His family told the press advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders that he was a member of the indigenous Purepecha group, and that he had written columns about attacks by armed groups on members on his community.His employers told Reporters Without Borders that the Michoacán state justice department failed to take any action after being notified two weeks ago that threats had been made against him.
11 APRIL-HONDURAS - LUIS ANTONIO CHEVEZ HERNANDEZ
RadioW105 presenter Luis Antonio Chévez Hernández was gunned down in San Pedro Sula, the country's business capital, following a particularly violent month of March in which five journalists were slain. Aged 22 and nicknamed "El Huevo" (The Egg), Chévez and a cousin were getting out of a car outside Chévez's house when they were shot by unidentified gunmen, who fled the scene. The motive is still unknown but the police have ruled out robbery as a sizeable sum of money was found in the victims' belongings. Witnesses said they had seen strangers lurking near the house prior to the arrival of Chévez and his cousin. "We cannot stand this wave of violence any longer," a member of the journalist's family said. No one has been brought to justice for any of the murders, physical attacks or threats against journalists since the June 2009 coup d'état.
11 APRIL - COLOMBIA - MAURICIO MORENO MEDINA
Indigenous journalist Mauricio Moreno Medina, the founding member of a community radio station for the Pijao indigenous people, was murdered by unknown assailants in his home, in the town of Ortega in Colombia's western Tolima department. Medina, 50, died of multiple knife wounds.
Police investigating the murder said they did not suspect a link with any illegal armed groups. They said Moreno had not received any death threats.
But Reporters Without Borders (RSF) suggested the murder was more than a "crime of passion" as police concluded. "The label "crime of passion" is too often used to avoid investigation of any link with the victim's work, even to the extent of covering up a case. This has already happened in several other murders of journalists in Colombia," it said. "As a director of a community radio, the kind of media often targeted by the authorities, particularly in conflict areas, Medina ran risks as a result of his work."
14 APRIL - PHILIPPINES - EDWIN SEGUES
A radio reporter was shot dead in the southern Philippines on Wednesday, the second reporter to be murdered in the country this year, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said.Edwin Segues was also a local village official in Misamis Occidental province on the southern island of Mindanao. He was on his way to work when two men shot him three times and fled on a motorcycle, said Ramon Diones, police chief in Ozamis City.The police had no motive for the murder.
16 APRIL - PAKISTAN - MALIK ARIF
Samaa TV cameraman Malik Arif was killed in a suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital and five journalists Noor Elahi Bugti of Samaa TV, Salman Ashraf of Geo TV, Fareed Ahmed of Dunya TV, Khalil Ahmed of Express TV and Malik Sohail of Aaj TV were wounded. The journalists were at the hospital to film a gathering by Shiites in support of a Shiite businessman who had been the target of a murder attempt. Seven other people were killed in the bombing, which bore the hallmarks of a Sunni jihadist action. "When all the businessman's friends and all the journalists had gathered at the hospital, a suicide bomber came up, opened fire and then blew himself up in the middle of the crowd," Quetta-based journalist Malik Siraj told Reporters Without Borders. A journalist for 30 years and father of four children, Malik Arif was the second journalist to be killed in Pakistan since the start of this year.
16 APRIL - LATVIA - GRIGORIJS NEMCOVS
Media owner Grigorijs Ņemcovs was the victim of an apparent contract killing in Daugavpils, the largest city in the southeastern region of Latgale. Publisher of the regional newspaper Million and owner of a local TV station of the same name, Ņemcovs was shot twice in the head at close range when he went to a meeting in a café. The murder, appeared to have been carefully planned and executed. The gunman seems to have been following Ņemcovs when he arrived at a café on Lacplesa Street near the University of Daugavpils. Founded by Ņemcovs in 1995 and now Latvia's biggest regional Russian-language newspaper, Million is renowned for its investigative coverage of political and local government corruption and mismanagement. Ņemcovs was also an activist and deputy mayor of Daugavpils whose support played a major role in the success of the civil society movement Latgales Tauta (Nation of Latgale). Death threats were made against Ņemcovs in 2007 and his house was burned down. The arsonists were never identified. He was also physically attacked in 2000 by unidentified assailants who took his passport.The police have not yet identified any suspects for his murder.
18 APRIL - PAKISTAN - AZMAT ALI BANGASH
Reporter Azmat Ali Bangash became the second Samaa TV journalist to be killed by a suicide bomber in past 48 hours. Bangash was doing a report in a camp for displaced Shiite villagers near the Afghan border, 65 km from Peshawar, when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the place where families had gathered to be registered, killing 41 people including Bangash and injuring around 60 others. The bombings, which were claimed by a Sunni jihadist group, Al Laskhar-e-Jahngvi, were targeted at Shiites who have been forced to flee the fierce fighting in the Orakzai region resulting from an army offensive against the Taliban. Samaa TV cameraman Malik Arif was killed and five journalists were wounded by a suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital the day before that left a total of eight dead. The journalists had gone to the hospital to cover a Shiite demonstration in support of a Shiite businessman who had been the target of a murder attempt.
20 APRIL - HONDURAS - GEORGINO ORELLANA
A gunman fatally shot a journalist in the head as he was leaving a television studio in the city of San Pedro Sula. Honduran police spokesman Hector Ivan Mejia said 48-year-old Georgino Orellana had just finished anchoring his news show and was leaving TV-Honduras' building Tuesday night when a gunman approached and shot him once in the head. Mejia didn't say whether Orellana's death was tied to his work as a journalist.
24 APRIL - NIGERIA - NATHAN DABAT
24 APRIL - NIGERIA - SUNDAY BWADE
In the city of Jos in the restive central Plateau state, a mob of Muslim rioters reacting to the discovery of an allegedly Muslim corpse found near a church killed Deputy Editor Nathan S. Dabak, 36, and reporter Sunday Gyang Bwede, 39, of Church of Christ in Nigeria-owned monthly The Light Bearer, according to local news reports. Journalists have been targeted amid recent deadly outbreaks of sectarian violence in the area.
The journalists were riding a motorcycle on their way interview a local politician, Member of Parliament Bitrus Kaze, when they were stabbed by rioters on Saturday morning, their editor-in-chief, Gyarta Pofi, told the Committee to Protect Journalists. The Associated Press reported that they were covering the unrest.
24 APRIL - NIGERIA - EDO SULE-UGBAGWU
Two unidentified gunmen shot dead the Judiciary Correspondent of The Nation newspaper, Mr. Edo Sule-Ugbagwu in his Lagos residence. He was hit in the head by several bullets. His killing came seven months after the former Assistant News Editor of The Guardian, Mr. Bayo Ohu, was killed by unknown gunmen in Lagos. Two senior journalists with ThisDay newspaper, Godwin Agbroko and Abayomi Ogundeji, were shot in similar circumstances in 2006 and 2008.
The two armed men are reported to have invaded Sule-Ugbagwu's flat around 6.30pm. The journalist's younger brother, Okloho, told newsmen that he was accosted by the gunmen, who demanded money. Sule-Ugbagwu was said to have asked the gunmen to leave his apartment and they subsequently shot him on the forehead.
The paper has called for a thorough probe of the murder. The Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, Mr. Frank Mba, who spoke to journalists at the journalist's residence, said it was too early for the police to say what happened or who killed Edo.
MAY
03 MAY - BANGLADESH - FOTEH OSMANI
Foteh Osmani, a correspondent of Bangladesh's top weekly Shaptahik 2000, died from injuries suffered when unidentified armed assailants attacked him when he was riding on a motorcycle two weeks earlier. In a letter to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Reporters Without Borders expressed concern about the incident, saying it "cast doubt" on the government's desire to ensure a favourable media environment. "We urge you to order an exhaustive investigation into Foteh Osmani's murder in order to establish the identity and motives of those responsible and bring them to justice," the group's secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said. Osmani's "assailants clearly set an ambush for him even if their motives are not yet known," Julliard said in the letter.
Shaptahik 2000 is the South Asian country's highest-circulation Bengali weekly and is known for its hard-hitting investigative reports on corruption and social problems.
04 MAY - SOMALIA - SHEIK MOHAMAD ABKEY
Gunmen killed a Somali journalist working for the country's state-run radio station after abducting him on his way back home from work in Mogadishu.
According to his co-workers, Sheik Mohamed Abkey was kidnapped earlier on Tuesday.
"He came to work as usual this morning and left to see his family when gunmen took him, torturing him before they shot him dead," AFP quoted the station's political correspondent Abdolaziz Mohamed Guled as saying.
His colleagues linked the killing of Abkey to Radio Mogadishu's critical views of insurgents. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
Gunmen abandoned Abkey's mutilated body in a Mogadishu street, eyewitnesses said.
Abkey joined the Somali News Agency -- SONA -- in the 1970s. During years of civil war in the country he also worked for the Somali Television Network based in Mogadishu, where he was a news anchor and comedian. More recently, he worked with Somalia's Information Ministry.
05 MAY - INDIA - AJAY TIWARI
A reporter with a Hindi news channel was killed when a wall collapsed on him when he was covering a fire in south-west Delhi. Ajay Tiwari (27), a reporter with a Noida-based TV channel, died inside a four-storey clothes godown in Rajapuri near Dwarka where a fire had broken out around 4:15pm. Tiwari was taking shots of the fire when a cylinder blast triggered a wall collapse. He was crushed inside the debris, said fire brigade officials. Police said the incident took place as the cylinder blast led to simultaneous blasts in two adjoining water pumps. The pressure of the water led to the wall collapse. Tiwari was rushed to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. He was married with a three-year-old child.
06 MAY - IRAQ - SARDASHT OSMAN
A 23 year old student of the University of Salahadin, who also worked as a journalist, was kidnapped and murdered in the city of Mosul, reported local media outlets. Sardasht Osman was kidnapped by a group of armed men from in front of the Language Department of the University of Salahadin where he was a final year English student. One report said the student could have been kidnapped because of an article that he had written on a high ranking member of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). A close friend said Osman worked as a journalist and his last story was about a high ranking member of the KRG that is why according to his friend - "it is suspected that his kidnapping be a result of this article." Bashdar Osman, the brother of the victim, said his brother was threatened a number of times via mobile phone calls because he wrote about the [KRG] authorities.
10 MAY - PAKISTAN - GHULAM RASOOL BIRHAMANI
Police found the body of journalist Ghulam Rasool Birhamani, 30, a reporter for the daily "Sindhu Hyderabad", at a deserted place two kilometres from Dadu. Hospital officials said death was caused by fatal injuries to the head. There were torture marks on the body. Ghulam Bhind, president of the Dadu Press Club, told the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) that Ghulam Rasool Birhamani had received threats from members of the Lashari tribe some days ago after he reported on the marriage of an underage girl from the tribe.
13 MAY - RUSSIA - SAID IBRAGIMOV
Said Ibragimov, director of the local TBS television channel, was killed on his way to restore a TV transmitter, damaged by militants the day before. Near the village of Ayazi his Niva, carrying a team of repairmen, and the accompanying police jeep were ambushed by gunmen who set off a bomb in front of the vehicles and then opened fire. They killed five, among them Ibragimov, and wounded four.
19 MAY - THAILAND- FABIO POLENGHI
Fabio Polenghi, an Italian photojournalist, has been shot dead in Bangkok, where he was covering violent confrontations between government troops and anti-government protesters in the Thai capital. The 48-year-old freelance photographer died on the way to hospital after being shot in the stomach as members of the military raided a camp set up by the anti-government 'Red Shirt' protesters. At least five people are believed to have been killed in the violence. Polenghi had been in Thailand for several days covering the protests for a European magazine. He is the second foreign journalist to have been killed during the violence. Reuters television cameraman Hiro Muramoto, a 43-year-old Japanese national, died last month after being shot in the chest during the protests.
27 MAY - GUATEMALA - ANIBAL ARCHILA
AnÃbal Archila, a Guatemalan reporter for Notisiete, was killed as he was reporting on the eruption of the Pacaya volcano. Firefighters and another journalist found his body near Cerro Chino. Archila, 32, had worked for 12 years as a journalist. Fellow worker Vinicio Fuentes said Archilla couldn't escape from the volcanic stone rain and was hit several times by lava and rocks. Archilla was lying in a foetal position, still holding his video camera.
28 MAY - PAKISTAN - EJAZUL HAQ
Television journalist Ejazul Haq was killed in Lahore while reporting through his mobile telephone when gunmen armed with grenades attacked two mosques. Reporters heard the shots that killed him in one of the mosques and his last words. Dozens of members of the Ahmadiyyah community were also killed in the twin attacks during Friday prayers. "It is tragic that [Mr. Haq] paid with his life for his professional dedication," said Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO. She voiced hope that the Pakistani authorities enhance the safety of media professionals, "who are being made to pay an unacceptably heavy sacrifice to the fundamental human right of freedom of speech and to our right to be informed of events that concern us."
31 MAY - TURKEY - CEVDET KILICLAR
Turkish photographer Cevdet Kiliçlar was reported killed by Israeli troops who stormed a flotilla of aid ships off the coast of Gaza. Witnesses said he was shot in the head when he pointed his camera at the commandos.Kiliçlar, 38, was from Kayseri. He was a graduate of Marmara University's Faculty of Communications and formerly a newspaper journalist for the National Gazette and the Anatolia Times. For the past year, he was a reporter and webmaster for the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH). He was married to Derya Kiliçlar, and had one daughter, Gülhan, and one son, Erdem.
JUNE
14 JUNE - PHILIPPINES - DESIDARIO CAMANGYAN
A gunman shot and killed a radio journalist as he hosted a singing contest before shocked spectators in the southern Philippines, police said. Desidario Camangyan of Sunshine FM radio died from a gunshot wound to the head inside the gymnasium of Davao Oriental province's Manay township, said Inspector Ariel Nueva, the town's police chief. Camangyan, 52, was sitting on stage when the attacker shot him from behind, Nueva told The Associated Press. The gunman escaped on foot. Police were trying to determine the motive, including if the attack was related to Camangyan's work as a broadcaster. The NUJP chapter in Davao said Camangyan's killing may have been linked to his commentaries against mining and illegal logging operations in Davao Oriental.
14 JUNE - HONDURAS - LUIS ARTURO MONDRAGON
A television reporter was shot dead outside his station, becoming the ninth journalist killed in Honduras this year, officials said. Two gunmen killed Luis Arturo Mondragon as he left Channel 19 station in Santa Clara de Danli, a town outside Tegucigalpa, Security Department spokesman Leonel Sauceda said. Mondragon had just finished broadcasting his show. Police have no suspects or clear motive, but are looking into criminal complaints filed against Mondragon last year for sexual assault and for stealing cattle, Sauceda said. "Both situations are still being investigated and could be key to the reasons the journalist lost his life," he said. International and local news-media advocacy groups have denounced a string of attacks on reporters since the June 28, 2009 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Colleagues said Mondragon backed the coup and was known in Danli for carrying a gun. Journalist and activists who opposed the coup have also been attacked.
The ambush occurred only a week after GDF reported on the murder of Shamil Aliyev, founder and head-manager of the radio stations Priboi and Vatan and director of the television network TNT-Makhachkala, whose car came under fire from unidentified attackers who fled the scene of the crime
15 JUNE - PHILIPPINES - LITO AGUSTIN
Lito Agustin, who hosted a programme on local radio station DZJC, was ambushed by two men as he and his nephew rode a motorbike in Laoag city, police chief Superintendent Sterling Blanco said. Agustin, 37, was killed in a volley of gunfire but his companion was unhurt. The identity of the attackers was not known. Agustin reportedly survived another attack three days before 10 May national elections, when unknown gunmen opened fire on his home in nearby Bacarra town. Andy Vital, news director for the station's parent outfit Manila Broadcasting, told AFP that Agustin may have been killed to silence him. "Agustin has been vocal in criticising graft and corruption in Bacarra," Vital said.
18 JUNE - AFGHANISTAN - SGT. JAMES P. HUNTER
Staff Sgt. James P. Hunter died when a patrol he was with was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Kandahar. He was the first army journalist killed in the Afghan conflict. The 25-year-old from South Amherst, Ohio, was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. In addition to his own reporting and photography, he also had public affairs duties to escort and assist other media outlets that covered the brigade. His stories ranged from detailing how the brigade trains prior to a deployment to features about accomplishments of individual soldiers. His reports from Iraq included how soldiers worked with the Sons of Iraq movement and about life returning to normal in a Baghdad neighborhood in 2008. His photographs captured curious Iraqi children following troops on patrols and Iraqi doctors and Army medics treating Iraqis.
19 JUNE - PHILIPPINES - NESTOR BEDOLIDO
Nestor Bedolido, a writer for a weekly newspaper, was gunned down while buying cigarettes at a street corner in Digos City in Davao Del Sur province, 1,050 kilometres south of Manila. Police ChiefInspector Anthony Padua said Bedolido suffered six gunshot wounds to the body. "The suspect casually walked away after the shooting and rode a motorcycle driven by another man," he said. Padua said bystanders rushed Bedolido to a nearby hospital, but he died on arrival.
Police were investigating a motive for the killing, he said.Colleagues said Bedolido was critical of a prominent politician in Davao Del Sur province and had authored a series of exposes against the official ahead of the May elections.
24 JUNE - BRAZIL - CLOVIS SILVA AGUIAR
Clovis Silva Aguiar, sports journalist, 48, was killed in the city of Imperatriz, in the northeastern state of Maranhão. The reporter was at the door of his house when two men on a motorcycle fired three shots. He worked in the program 'Open Space', Capital TV, an affiliate of Rede TV chain inImperatriz. The police assumed that this was a homicide charge and arrested a suspect.
25 JUNE - RWANDA - JEAN LEONARD RUGAMBAGE
A journalist working for a private newspaper has been shot dead in front of his house in the Rwandan capital. Witnesses say Jean Leonard Rugambage, the acting editor of Umuvugizi newspaper, was fired on by two men who then fled in a car. The authorities had recently suspended the paper, prompting it to start publishing online instead. The paper's exiled chief editor has blamed the government. Editor Jean Bosco Gasasira, who fled to Uganda in April after his paper was suspended, said the Kigali government had master-minded the assassination of Mr Rugambage who died in hospital after the shooting. "I'm 100% sure it was the office of the national security services which shot him dead," he told Voice of America. Mr Gasasira said it was because of an article published on the Umuvugizi website relating to the attempted killing last weekend of former army chief Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa. Rwanda has denied accusations it was behind the shooting of Lt Gen Nyamwasa. Police said they had arrested two men and one of them admitted killing the journalist. Internal Security Minister Moussa Fazil Harelimana said the man had told police he killed Rugambage in revenge because the journalists had killed his brother in the 1994 Tutsi genocide. Rugambage was acquitted in 2006 by a grass-roots court of participating in the genocide.
29 JUNE - PAKISTAN - FAIZ MUHAMMAD SASOLI
Faiz Muhammad Sasoli, a reporter based in Khuzdar District, in the south-western province of Balochistan, was killed by submachinegun fire. Sasoli, who worked for the Aaj Kal daily newspaper and the Independent News of Pakistan agency, had escaped two previous murder attempts. He is the sixth media worker to be killed in Pakistan since the start of this year
JULY
2 JULY - INDIA - HEMCHANDRA PANDEY
Hemchandra Pandey, a freelance journalist, was killed alongside top Maoist leader and spokesperson Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad in Andhra Pradesh. Pandey was working as a journalist for the Hindi newspaper Nayi Duniya in Chhattisgarh. State home minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy said an investigation would establish whether Pandey was a journalist or not. She gave the assurance to Pandey's widow Bhavitha, who met her at the state secretariat, senior government sources said. In a memorandum submitted to the home minister, a sobbing Bhavitha alleged that the police killed Pandey in a "stage-managed encounter". "My husband was not a Maoist. He was a freelance journalist in Uttarakhand," she said and demanded stern action against the erring police officials. Defending the government, and refuting the fake encounter charge, Reddy said the CPI (Maoist) had said in a press release that Pandey was a Maoist.
6 JULY - MEXICO - HUGO OLIVERA
Hugo Olivera, 27, a journalist and co-owner with his father of the daily El Dia de Michoacan, had gone missing for a day before his body was found inside his car, in front of a shooting range, in the small town of Buenavista Tomatlan. Olivera was a crime reporter.
10 JULY - MEXICO - MARCO AURELIO MARTINEZ TIJERINA
10 JULY - MEXICO - GUILLERMO ALCARAZ TREJO
Mexican journalists Marco Aurelio Martinez Tijerina and Guillermo Alcaraz Trejo were killed in separate incidents in the northern states of Chihuahua and Nuevo Leon.
Radio journalist Martinez, 45, was found dead Saturday in Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon, hours after he was snatched off the street by gunmen traveling in three vehicles, RSF said. Martinez was producer and host of a news program on regional broadcaster XEDD Radio La Tremenda, as well as a former correspondent for TV Azteca. The 24-year-old Alcaraz, who oversaw the video section of the Web site of the Chihuahua human rights commission, was gunned down while leaving the Chihuahua city offices of the newspaper OMNIA. Alcaraz had gone to the "Omnia" offices to say hello to his former colleagues and was waiting for his girlfriend in his car outside the building when several people in a moving vehicle opened fire and shot him. It appeared that Alcaraz tried to start his car to escape but he quickly lost control and crashed into a tree. The assailants fired more than 40 rounds from AK-47 assault rifles. Marco Aurelio MartÃnez Tijerina, a journalist from Montemorelos, Nuevo León, was kidnapped on 9 July and was found dead the following day. He was the presenter of the radio show "Informativo 800" at XEDD Radio La Tremenda and was formerly the news director for XERN Radio Naranjera 950 AM and a correspondent for TV Azteca, Grupo Multimedios and W Radio.
11 JULY - UGANDA - STEPHEN TINKA
Ugandan broadcast journalist, Stephen Tinka, was among those killed in the blasts that rocked Kampala city during the screening of the World Cup final match. Tinka, who had a night programme and hosted a Saturday morning magazine show died the following day, after spending the night in a critical condition.
19 JULY - GREECE - SOCRATES GIOLIAS
Athens journalist Socrates Giolias was killed by unidentified individuals at dawn, who riddled him with bullets outside his home in the Ilioupolis suburb of Athens. His wife told the police that an unknown man rang the doorbell of their apartment at about 5.20 a.m. and when Giolias opened the door told him that someone was attempting to steal his car outside the apartment building.When Giolias descended to the building entrance where he had parked his car, he was shot several times, dying on the spot.
Police have collected some 20 cartridges from the scene. The perpetrators, tentatively believed to be three, fled in a car.
Giolias was a director of the national news radio station "Thema 9.89," and also wrote for the blog, Troktiko, which often reported on scandals. He also worked closely with Makis Triandafylopoulos, a Greek journalist, famous for his investigative reporting. Giolias' wife, who has suffered a strong shock, and the couple's young child were in the apartment at the time of the killing.
21 JULY - INDIA - VIJAY PRATAP SINGH
Indian Express Senior Reporter Vijay Pratap Singh was injured in the blast outside an Uttar Pradesh minister's house in Allahabad. He remained in critical state and died ten days later. Prior to joining the Express he worked with The Leader and The Times of India. Vijay Pratap Singh was 38 years old. He is survived by a wife and two young children.
22 JULY - NEPAL - DEVI PRASAD DHITAL
Dhital, chairman of the Tulsipur FM radio station, was killed by a group of five men who shot at him as he emerged from the home of a school teacher and political associate in his home town Tulsipur, in Nepal's far-western district of Dang.
26 JULY - INDONESIA - MUHAMMAD SYAIFULLAH
Syaifullah, Borneo bureau chief with Indonesia's biggest daily newspaper Kompas, was found dead at his home in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan province. As he was known for his uncompromising reporting on environmental issues many of his colleagues believe he was poisoned.
30 JULY - INDONESIA - ARDIANSYAH MATRA'IS
A search team in West Papua, Indonesia, found the body of local reporter Ardiansyah Matra'is, in a river, two days after the journalist had been reported missing. Matra'is was found naked and handcuffed, according to Radio New Zealand International.
Matra'is, a reporter for local broadcaster Merauke TV, had received several text messages over the previous week in the run up to local elections, according to Indonesian news reports. The journalist, who had worked as a stringer for TV station Anteve and as a reporter for Papua's Rajawali daily before joining Merauke TV, had been reported missing since 28 July, when local residents found his motorcycle and helmet near a bridge in Merauke, a small town in Papua.
A number of other local journalists had also complained to the police about receiving threatening text messages, local police said. According to the Jakarta Globe, one of the threatening text messages read: "To cowardly journalists, never play with fire if you don't want to be burned. If you still want to make a living on this land, don't do weird things. We have data on all of you and be prepared for death."
The cause of Matra'is' death has yet to be determined; local newspapers report that the family has been reluctant to have an autopsy performed. Local police are investigating.
AUGUST
03 AUGUST - LEBANON - ASSAF ABU RAHHAL
Assaf Abu Rahhal was killed in clashes between the Israeli and Lebanese armies, according to the website Now Lebanon. It said the 55-year-old, a journalist for Al-Akhbar, was reporting on the fighting from the southern Lebanese town of Aadiseh. Ali Shaib, a correspondent with Al-Manar television was also believed to have been wounded whilst covering the fighting.
09 AUGUST - TOGO - FAUSTIN YEKINI RADJI
Radji, a journalist with Golfe Info was mortally injured in a car accident on 6 August and died three days later.
21 AUGUST - INDONESIA - RIDWAN SALAMUN
SUN-TV journalist Ridwan Salamun was killed as he attempted to cover clashes between two warring villages in Tual in Southeast Maluku. Ridwan Salamun, 28, was found dead during a fight between the villages of Banda Ely and Fiditan. He had suffered fatal injuries from a spear and a cut to his head. He is survived by his wife and a 3-year-old son.
24 AUGUST - SOMALIA - BARKHAT AWALE
Veteran radio journalist Barkhat Awale was killed by crossfire in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Awale, 60, director of the community radio station Hurma Radio, was on the roof of the station assisting a technician in fixing the station's transmitter when a stray bullet hit him in the stomach. His colleagues rushed him to Madina Hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Awale had worked in the media for the last 30 years and was director of Hurma Radio for the past four, the National Union of Somali Journalists reported.
24 AUGUST - HONDURAS - ISRAEL ZELAYA
Veteran journalist Israel Zelaya was killed hours after being kidnapped by gunmen in the city of San Pedro Sula. His body was found in a sugar cane plantation near the city of Villanueva. Three months earlier,the 62-year-old radio commentator for Radio International in San Pedro Sula had complained to authorities that a group of strangers had set his house on fire. Police have no suspects or a motive in the killing.
SEPTEMBER
1 SEPTEMBER - SOMALIA - ABDULAHI OMAR GEDI
Abdulahi Omar Gedi, was attacked as he left the newsroom by unidentified assailants who stabbed him at the chest and the legs in Garsoor village. He died from his wounds on his way to the General Hospital of Galkayo. Gedi,25,was newscaster and reporter and worked for Radio Daljir branch in Galkayo.
4 SEPTEMBER - PAKISTAN - ALI REZA
Ali Raza, was severely injured in the triple bomb blast that hit the city of Lahore. Ali Raza was a reporter in a local newspaper and was covering the Shia procession in connection with Yaum-e-Ali on September 1st. He was transported to Meo Hospital for medical care but died two days later.
6 SEPTEMBER - AFGHANISTAN - SAYED HAMID NOORI
Sayed Hamid Noori was found stabbed to death outside his home in Kabul. Noori, 45, was a well-known TV news anchor at the state-owned broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan. Noori had left home after receiving a series of phone calls, suggesting that he either knew his assailants or had been set up. He was vice president of Afghanistan's Association of Independent Journalists (AIJ) and a teacher of young journalists.
6 SEPTEMBER - PAKISTAN - AIJAZ RAISANI
In a suicide attack that took place during a religious procession in the city of Quetta, the capital city of Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, Aijaz Raisani, 30, a camera operator for "Samaa TV", was injured in the blast and also received two bullet wounds, died of his injuries two days later.
7 SEPTEMBER - IRAQ - RIYADH AL SARRAY
The prominent Iraqi television presenter Riyadh al-Sarray has been shot dead in Baghdad. Unknown gunmen in a speedy car intercepted the car of al-Sarray in Harithiya area of Baghdad and killed him by silenced pistols. Mr al-Sarray, who presented religious and political programmes on the state-run television al-Iraqiya TV, was killed as he was heading for work.He was known for his attempts to narrow sectarian differences in Iraq.The 35-year-old lawyer joined the state broadcaster in 2005.
8 SEPTEMBER - ANGOLA - ALBERTO GRAVES CHAKUSSANGA
Alberto Graves Chakussanga, a radio journalist with a station critical of the ruling MPLA government, was found lying in a corridor of his home in Luanda's Viana district with a bullet in his back. He had been the presenter of a weekly, Umbundu-language news call-in program on private Radio Despertar. Chakussanga, 32, was also a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Agostinho Neto state university and at the Angolan police academy. A few hours before his death, Chakussanga had left his pregnant wife at a hospital where she gave birth later that day to a baby boy.
8 SEPTEMBER - IRAQ - SAFA AL DIN ABDEL HAMID
Safa al-Din Abdel Hamid, an Al-Mosuliya television presenter was shot as he was leaving for work in front of his Mosul home by gunmen firing from a speeding car. A father of six, Abdel Hamid had worked less than a year at Al-Mosuliya, a private channel that broadcasts in northern Iraq. His program "Our Mosques," detailed the history of historic religious sites in Mosul.
11 SEPTEMBER - ECUADOR - MAYRA EMILIA AGUILAR DUENAS
The bodies of Dueñas, manager of Milagro City TV, and her husband, Manuel Antonio Maridueña Alvarado, who used to work for the municipal government of Yaguachi, were found in a river in the province of Guayas. They were both tortured before being killed. The attorney of Yaguachi did not discard that the crime could be related to Aguilar's work.
11 SEPTEMBER - UGANDA - PAUL KIGGUNDU
Commercial motor cyclists locally known as bodabodas in Rakai district have beaten a Top radio correspondent Paul Kiggundu to death. Kiggundu joined the Masaka based Top Radio eight months ago as an area for Rakai district in Southern Buganda. The cyclists pounced on him when he was recording scenes of demolition of the homestead of a suspected motorcycle robber Frank Kagayi who they also accused of killing their fellow cyclist Sengooba Eddie. Despite his efforts to identify himself as a journalist, they beat Kiggundu into comma. He died before he could be rushed to Kalisizo government hospital. Kiggundu survived with one wife and four children. May his Soul Rest in Peace.
14 SEPTEMBER - PAKISTAN - MISRI KHAN ORAKZAI
Misri Khan, president of the journalists association in Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, was shot dead early today as he was entering the press club, eyewitness and co-journalist said. Khan died after being taken to a Hangu district hospital.The son of the slain journalist, said the family had no dispute or enmity with anyone in the area, and added that the incident was the result of his reporting
15 SEPTEMBER - UGANDA - DICKSON SSENTONGO
Unidentified assailants beat and killed news presenter Dickson Ssentongo at 5 a.m. as he was trying to catch a bus in Nantabulirirwa village, 43 miles (70 kilometers) from the Kireka-based Prime Radio station. Assailants beat Ssentongo with metal bars and dragged him into a nearby cassava field. A local farmer found Ssentongo alive at 9 a.m. rushed him to Mulago Hospital, where he died several hours later. Ssentongo, 29, had worked as Lugandan news presenter for Prime Radio for two years and a part-time court assessor for the Mukono High Court.
16 SEPTEMBER - MEXICO - LUIS CARLOS SANTIAGO OROZCO
Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco, an "El Diario" photojournalist in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, was killed on 16 September 2010. He and his colleague were the target of a gunfire attack in the parking lot of a shopping mall, which left the second journalist in critical condition in hospital. The incident took place around 2:30 p.m. at the Rio Grande mall. The journalists, who were working at the newspaper as part of a scholarship programme, were eating at one of the mall's restaurants only streets away from the paper's offices after spending the morning at a photography course. Both were surprised by armed attackers while they were driving in a gray Nissan Platina in the mall's parking lot. Santiago Orozco, who was 21 and had been driving the vehicle, died at the scene. According to "El Diario" reporters, the attackers fired at the journalist from a moving vehicle. Santiago Orozco was shot in the head and lost control of the vehicle, crashing into two other parked cars. Federal police who arrived at the crime scene were able to obtain the photography equipment belonging to the injured journalist and Crime Scene Unit officers were going to use the contents of the memory card in their investigations. Nine 9mm caliber bullets were found at the scene. As well, the car that Santiago Orozco was driving had been lent to him by the family of Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, who had worked for the State Human Rights Commission before he left the country after receiving a death threat. Santiago Orozco had kept in touch with de la Rosa Hickerson. Accounts from other journalists said that the injured journalist had only been working for "El Diario" for two weeks and that he had mainly been working on stories about safety issues. Santiago Orozco was about to be made a full-time employee because of the "high quality of his work", said paper executives.
17 SEPTEMBER - PAKISTAN - MUJEEBUR REHMAN SADDIQUI
Mujeebur Rehman Saddiqui, a correspondent of the daily Pakistan was shot by unidentified gunmen when he came out of a mosque after evening prayers in Dargai.He died from two bullet wounds at his arrival at the Peshawar Hospital.Saddiqui, 39, was a founder member of the Press Club in Malakand area and has been in the profession for the last two decades. He was also a famous poet of the area. He had reportedly received a number of death threats from militants for his uncompromising reporting. Saddiqui is survived by two sons, a daughter and a widow.
28 SEPTEMBER - GUATEMALA - VICTOR HUGO JUAREZ
Unidentified assailants tortured and killed Guatemalan journalist Victor Hugo Juarez in a residential area just outside the capital, his family said Tuesday. Juarez, who was killed in the attack along with Byron Davila Diaz, the 38-year-old owner of a small graphic design company, owned two online news sites: Wanima News and Guatemala Empresarial.
The bodies, which police said were found Monday at Davila's home, were tied up in a bed, showed signs of torture and strangulation, according to an official report. Juarez, 50, had reported for the daily Siglo XXI and, more recently, for the sports section of Nuestro Diario newspaper. Juarez had received death threats prior to his death.
OCTOBER
4 OCTOBER - IRAQ - TAHRIR KADHIM JAWAD
Freelance cameraman Tahrir Kadhim Jawad, 27, died instantly after a bomb attached to his car exploded in Garma, 50 miles west of Baghdad. Jawad was driving to the capital to deliver footage when the bomb exploded. He had worked as a journalist for seven years, first as an editor with the weekly Al-Karma, and then as a freelance cameraman who supplied numerous television broadcasters with footage. Jawad is survived by his wife and five children.
14 OCTOBER - COLOMBIA - RODOLFO MAYA ARICAPE
Two gunmen shot Maya, a journalist and a leader of the local indigenous community, in his home in rural Caloto in southwest Cauca province, according to the Bogotá-based Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP) and CPJ interviews. Maya, 34, was a correspondent for Radio Payumat, a community radio station that is part of a network operated by the Association of Indigenous Councils in Norte del Cauca (ACÃN). Maya covered political issues and the civil conflict in the region, according to Jorge Arias, an ACÃN representative. Maya's newsgathering activities were closely tied to his role as an indigenous leader, Arias said. Two weeks before the murder, graffiti in Caloto accused Maya and other indigenous leaders of being members of the leftist guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), CPJ sources said. Arias told CPJ that it was difficult to establish whether Maya was killed for his journalism or his role as an indigenous community leader. No police investigation had been initiated as of early December, local authorities told CPJ. Arias said indigenous officials were conducting an investigation of their own.
18 OCTOBER - BRAZIL - FRANCISCO GOMES DE MEDEIROS
Crime reporter Francisco Gomes de Medeiros died after being shot five times outside his home in the north-western city of Caicos. The 48-year-old radio journalist and popular blogger had received several death threats, many of them after he broke a story on vote-rigging in the run-up to Brazilian general elections, held on 3 October. The story reported that local politicians were bribing voters with crack cocaine. On Wednesday 20 October, local authorities confirmed they believed the killing to be linked to Medeiros' work.
According to the Associated Press, police have arrested a former prisoner, Joao Francisco dos Santos, who confessed he killed Medeiros because he felt that coverage of a robbery he committed in 2007 convinced the judge to sentence him to 18 months in jail instead of the seven months he expected. However, police are continuing their investigations despite the confession.
NOVEMBER
5 NOVEMBER - MEXICO - CARLOS GUAJARDO
Newspaper reporter Carlos Guajardo was killed in a shootout between marines and gunmen in the Mexican border city of Matamoros. Local media said Guajardo was leaving the scene of the shootout in his car when it was hit more than twenty times.
21 NOVEMBER - IRAQ - MAZIN AL-BAGHDADI
Gunmen shot and killed a young Iraqi journalist in front of his family in the northern city of Mosul, an official at the Interior Ministry said. Mazin al-Baghdadi worked as a reporter and anchor for al-Mousiliyya TV. Gunmen in civilian clothing showed up at his home around 6 p.m. and identified themselves to his father as intelligence officers, the ministry official said. When al-Baghdadi exited to his house to speak with the men, they shot him. His family was looking on when the shooting occurred, according to the official
18 NOVEMBER - PAKISTAN - ABDUL HAMEED HAYATAN
The body of Abdul Hameed Hayatan, a young Baloch journalist who was kidnapped in the southwestern port city of Gwadar, Pakistan, on 25 October was found beside the River Sami in Turbat, 40 km to the east, on 18 November. His reporting critical of the Pakistani authorities and his support for the Baloch national movement were almost certainly the motive for his abduction and murder. Hayatan was shot in the head and chest. Marks on his body clearly indicated that he was tortured before being killed. The body of a student, Hamid Ismail, was found alongside Hayatan's. In a reference to a Muslim Eid (festival) that has just ended, a message found with the bodies said: "Eid present for the Baloch people." Journalists based in Balochistan told Reporters Without Borders that Hayatan was probably murdered by members of the security forces (who are fighting Baloch armed separatists) or a Jihadi group.
DECEMBER
5 DECEMBER - PAKISTAN - ALTAF CHANDIO
Altaf Chandio, the president of the Mirpurkhas in Sindh and bureau chief of the private Sindhi language channel, AWAZ (voice), was gunned down outside his house by unidentified attackers. They knocked at his door and shot him as he answered it. He was fatally wounded and died on the way to hospital. Police are investigating the murder but have not yet revealed the motive for the killing.
6 DECEMBER - PAKISTAN - ABDUL WAHAB
6 DECEMBER - PAKISTAN - PERVEZ KHAN
Abdul Wahab, of Express News, and Pervez Khan, of WAQT TV, were among 50 people at a government building in Ghalanai, Mohmand Agency, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in the country's north-west who were killed in a suicide bombing. The purported leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility, Pakistan's Daily Times reported. A further 100 people, including journalist Mohab Ali Mohmand, were wounded in the attack in which two suicide bombers disguised as policemen targeted a tribal meeting of a peace committee of Alizai and Safi tribes at the office of Roshan Khan Mehsud, the Daily Times reported. The meeting was called to devise a strategy against terrorism in the tribal region. Wahab, aged in his mid-30s, and Khan, aged about 28, were preparing a report on the plight of displaced people at the time, according to Mohmand Press Club President Shakirullah Jan.
10 DECEMBER - PHILIPPINES - EDISON FLAMENIA
A Filipino journalist, Edison Flamenia Sr, was shot dead in an attack in the troubled southern region of Mindanao as he was walking home in the village of Tabudok in Labangan town. Flamenia was writing for the Mindanao Inquirer. The motive is still unknown and his family has appealed to authorities to search and arrest the killer. Dozens of journalists had been killed in the Philippines in recent years and international media organizations branded the country as one of the world's most dangerous places for journalists.
20 DECEMBER - INDIA - SUSIL PATHAK
Sushil Pathak was shot dead by unidentified people in the Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh. The 35-year-old, who was a journalist with Dainik Bhaskar, was returning home from work at around 2am and had parked his car in a nearby street when he was shot. Pathak was found by a fellow journalist lying in a pool of blood after the assailants fled. He was declared dead at hospital
24 DECEMBER - NIGERIA - AUGUSTINE SINDYI
Plateau State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has regretted the death of one of its members, Mr. Augustine Sindyi, a photo journalist with Nigeria Standard Newspapers in the bomb explosion in Jos, the state capital. The union said Mr. Sindyi was at scene of the multiple bomb blasts at Kabong in Jos North Local Government Area of the state and was among the first casualties who died on the spot. Syindi was an experienced photo journalist and is survived by a wife and children.
28 DECEMBER - HONDURAS - HENRY SUAZO
A radio reporter has been gunned down outside his home in Honduras, one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists. Police say Henry Suazo was killed as he left his home in the coastal town of La Masica. The 38-year-old reporter worked for HRN radio and Cablevision del Atlantico television. A police statement said nobody has been arrested and the motive is unknown.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14