Corruption and Crime

José Alberto Velázquez López, owner of the Mexican newspaper Expresiones de Tulum in the southeastern state of Quintana Roo, died late Tuesday after being shot in his car by a gunman aboard a motorcycle, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local news reports. Mexican authorities must swiftly investigate this crime and bring those responsible to justice...

José Alberto Velásquez López, a journalist and lawyer based in Tulum, in the eastern Mexico state of Quintana Roo, died on the night of December 22 after being shot as he drove home, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The editor of the Diario Express de Tulum newspaper and a contributor to Canal 30, a local TV station, Velásquez left a wife who is about to give birth and a five-year-old...

Kyrgyzstan journalist Gennady Pavlyuk, who was thrown from a sixth floor window in Almaty, Kazakhstan on December 16, died Tuesdayin hospital, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “Ten days ahead of taking over the presidency of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Kazakh authorities cannot allow a murder like this to go unpunished and the Kyrgyz side must...

Tuesday morning after falling from an upper-story window of an apartment building in Kazakhstan’s economic capital, Almaty, last week, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Pavlyuk, 40, described by colleagues as one of Kyrgyzstan’s most prominent journalists, had travelled to Almaty from Bishkek on business on Wednesday; the exact purpose of the trip remains...

Cihan Hayırsevener, editor of the local daily Güney Marmara’da Yaşam, was shot three times in the leg on December 19 while walking to his office in Bandirma, a town 60 miles (100 km) northeast of Istanbul, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local news reports. One bullet hit a major artery in his left leg, causing intensive bleeding. He was taken by...

Ten members of “Mara 18”, including two women, were arrested in Sopayango, in the San Salvador suburbs on December 16 in connection with the murder of the Franco-Spanish documentary filmmaker Christian Poveda, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The killing of the photo-journalist, overnight on September 2, 2009, sent shockwaves through the profession. RSF welcomed the commitment of the...

An unidentified gunman shot and killed Colombian journalist Hárold Humberto Rivas Quevedo in the western Valle del Cauca province on the night of December 15, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. CPJ Thursday called on Colombian authorities to investigate the killing and do everything in their power to bring all those responsible to justice. Rivas, 49, host of...

Unidentified assailants shot and killed Brazilian media owner and radio host José Givonaldo Vieira on Monday morning in northeastern Pernambuco state, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local news reports. CPJ called on Brazilian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into Vieira’s killing and to promptly bring to justice all those responsible...

No ransom demand. No news at all. The official investigation has not progressed in the month since María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe, a young journalist employed by the Diario de Zamora and Cambio de Michoacán newspapers in the southwestern state of Michoacán, disappeared on November 11. Nonetheless, there are reasons for thinking her disappearance was linked to her reporting and that drug traffickers...

Political analyst and columnist Alexander Knyazev was attacked near his home in Bishkek Wednesday evening by four men who punched and kicked him repeatedly and took his computer and briefcase, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. It was the second physical attack on this well-known political and media personality in the past two years and the eighth this year on journalists in Kyrgyzstan...