State Impunity

Four journalists were on Monday abducted by a criminal group in Mexico's Laguna region, which includes Durango and areas of the neighbouring state of Coahuila, according to delayed reports. The group’s members have demanded press coverage of videos they made in exchange for the reporters’ release, according to international and local news reports. Media reports named the journalists as Jaime...

Monday's bombing of Al Arabiya's Baghdad office brought the death toll of the channel's employees to 15 since the start of the war in Iraq in 2003. Four people were killed and 15 were injured on Monday when a suicide bomber detonated a 120kg bomb in a van outside Al Arabiya's Baghdad office at 9.25am Baghdad time. According to the Iraq-based Journalism Freedom Observatory, a total of 249 media...

Six women and children were seriously injured late Monday after a group of unidentified attackers threw grenades and opened fire on a home connected to television correspondent Zafarullah Bonari, according to Pakistani journalists. Bonari, who works for ARY One World Television and Al-Jazeera, was not in the home at the time. The attack, reported initially by the Tribal Union of Journalists, came...

The Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has taken credit for Monday's bombing at the Al Arabiya office in Baghdad on a website it often uses to communicate, suggesting the attack was in response to a broadcast about the influence of the extremist group. The programme was called “Creation of Death.” “Wait for more,” the group’s statement said. The capabilities of the group, which is homegrown but is believed...

Muhammad Syaifullah, the Borneo bureau chief of the leading Indonesian daily Kompas, was found dead Tuesday in his home in Balikpapan, on the island of Borneo, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The cause of death is not yet known. The police said that his body was found in front of a TV set, that there was froth around his mouth and that the muscles of his face were contracted...

Four persons were killed and 10 others injured in Baghdad on Monday when a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle by the offices of Al Arabiya, its correspondent in Baghdad and interior ministry officials said. The bomber struck at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT) in front of the station's bureau in the city centre, leaving a massive crater and sending a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen from...

Six months after the unexplained disappearance of Sri Lankan journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Eknelygoda, the government has refused to offer any assistance or provide answers to his wife, Sandhya. The government’s attitude is a clear indicator of the anti-media polices of President Mahindra Rajapaksa, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. Eknelygoda, a political reporter and...

Devi Prasad Dhital alias Hemraj, the chairman of community radio Tulsipur FM, in the western Nepal district of Dang, has been murdered. Shot in the chest on Thursday, he died after being rushed to a hospital in Tulsipur, Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) has reported. Dhital was shot Thursday evening while travelling on a motorcycle. After bringing him down with their first shot, his killers shot...

An Egyptian journalist in Riyadh, who works as a correspondent of Kuwait's Al-Rai Arabic newspaper, was injured in a gun attack on Wednesday, according to arabnews.com. Subhi Rakha, the journalist, was attacked by a group of Saudi youths after he tried to settle a quarrel between them and an Egyptian with the help of others. The young men, after the quarrel had seemingly been settled, opened fire...

More than 50 journalists gathered in Sulaymaniyah’s Naly Park at 6 p.m. Wednesday to pay tribute to journalist Soran Hama Mama on the second anniversary of his death. The journalists and Mama’s relatives accused the local authorities of showing no interest in shedding any light on his murder. The gathering was addressed by Ahmed Mira, the editor of Lvin (the independent newspaper for which Mama...