State Impunity

A Somali journalist working for a private radio station was stabbed to death by unidentified attackers in the war-torn country's central Galkayo region, colleagues and witnesses said Wednesday. Abdulahi Omar Gedi, who worked with Daljir Radio, was attacked when he left work late on Tuesday and later died of his injuries in hospital, his colleague Abdulkadir Mohamed told Agence France-Presse (AFP)...

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has convicted Turkey in the case of Hrant Dink. The Turkish-Armenian journalist was assassinated on January 19, 2007 in Istanbul. According to news obtained by IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET), the ECHR chamber decided that there had been a violation of the right to life because Turkey did not prevent the murder of the journalist and did not carry out...

The editor of the daily Al-Watan, Mahnad Abu Zeiytoun, was attacked and stabbed by two masked men as he left the newspaper’s offices near the capital, Manama, at around 3 a.m. Wednesday. After asking him if he worked for Al-Watan, they tried to stab him in the face and heart but missed their targets. They set fire to his car with Molotov cocktails before fleeing. Zeiytoun was rushed to hospital...

The head of a news agency and his deputy have been missing for a week in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, a republic in the Russian Caucasus. Khuda-Media director Abubark Rizvanov and his deputy, Timur Kurbanmagomedov, went missing after leaving their office at 4 p.m. on August 20 to buy a printer cartridge. After they failed to return, their colleagues tried to call them on their mobile...

Magomedvagif Sultanmagomedov, a Muslim scholar who was the head of Makhachkala TV and the Nurul Irshad (Light of Truth) publishing house in Dagestan in the Russian Caucasus was murdered on August 11, according to delayed reports. Sultanmagomedov was fatally injured when unidentified gunmen fired on him as he was driving his car in the centre of Makhachkala, Dagestan’s capital, and died a few hours...

The body of Kamal Qassim Mohamed, the deputy editor of the magazine Al-Mustaqila, was found in Baghdad Tuesday, six days after his abduction by gunmen. He had been shot. His killers have not been identified. “The authorities have a duty to shed light on Kamal Qassim Mohamed’s murder,” Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. “A proper investigation must be carried out...

Veteran radio journalist Barkhat Awale was killed by crossfire Tuesday in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, the Commitee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local journalists and news reports. He is the second journalist killed on duty in Somalia this year, according to CPJ. Awale, 60, director of the community radio station Hurma Radio, was on the roof of the station assisting a...

A Manila court has acquitted the alleged gunmen in the 2004 killing of a broadcaster in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte, the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) has reported. Ilocos Norte is a province 399 km north of Manila. Branch 54 of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) cleared former Senior Police Officer Apolonio Medrano and Basilio Yadao of charges for the murder of Ilocos Norte...

Reporter Ivonu Ramadzu and cameraman Kresimira Morica of national radio and TV station HRT were attcked on August 5 while they were covering celebrations marking the 15th anniversary of Operation Oluja, a major military victory for Croatia in the Yugoslav Wars. The TV crew went to the village of Čavoglave, the birthplace of controversial singer Marko “Thompson” Perković, where his ultranationalist...

Desi Bouterse, sworn in Thursday as President of Suriname, continues to be charged with the murders of five journalists in 1982, while he was dictator. A soldier by profession, Bouterse has been returned to power by an election. He first came to power in a coup on February 25, 1980 and went on to run the country with an iron hand for two periods, 1980-1987 and 1990-1991, violating fundamental