State Impunity

Lydia Cacho, a well-known Mexican journalist and human rights defender, is reportedly being followed by an unknown, armed man who has been seen outside her house on several occasions in the last few days. Cacho told London-based ARTICLE 19 that a blue and silver 2008 Chevrolet motor vehicle has been seen at different hours in front of her house. Witnesses have described the driver as a robust man...

The intermediary in the June 2003 murder of Brazilian journalist Nicanor Linhares has been convicted, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Judge Francisco Mario Liberato sentenced Cássio Santana de Sousa to 23 years in prison on Wednesday for his participation in Linhares' killing in the northern city of Fortaleza, according to local news reports. Santana was...

Authorities found the body of a journalist who covered the police beat in northern Mexico Tuesday morning after he was abducted from his house on Monday night, according to Mexican news reports. Authorities found the body of Eliseo Barrón Hernández, left, a reporter and photographer for the Torreón-based daily La Opinión, in the city of Gómez Palacio, Durango, where he lived, reported the national...

Two journalists, a Canadian and an Australian, who have been held hostage for over nine months in Somalia are in poor health and have sought greater help from their governments to secure their release. Freelance Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan said they were in poor health and urged their respective governments to help free them, according to news...

Somalian radio reporter Nur Muse Hussein died Tuesday as a result of gunshot wounds suffered while covering fighting in April. Hussein, a veteran correspondent for Radio IQK, suffered two bullet wounds to his right leg while reporting on clashes between militia groups in the central town of Beledweyn on April 20, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSJ). We offer our deep...

A hand grenade attack was carried out on opposition television station Maestro TV in the early hours of Monday in Tbilisi as the political debate programme “Camera 5” was being broadcast live. The explosion damaged the entrance and blew out windows but caused no injuries, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “Any use of such methods to intimidate news media is deplorable and...

Balibo, a powerful film that tells of the events surrounding the brutal killing of five journalists by Indonesian soldiers in East Timor in 1975, will be showcased at the upcoming IPI World Congress in Helsinki. The political thriller is told through the eyes of Roger East (played by Emmy Award-winning actor Anthony LaPaglia), an Australian who went to East Timor to investigate the earlier...

Spanish investigating judge Santiago Pedraz has decided to reinstate murder charges against the three US soldiers responsible for shelling the Hotel Palestine in Baghdad on April 8, 2003, killing two cameramen, one of them the Spanish. The order came on Thursday. Spain’s National Court had ordered the withdrawal of the charges for lack of evidence in May 2008. José Couso, a Spanish cameraman...

The Philippines government must address a series of shootings that have targeted journalists on the southern island of Mindanao, the latest coming on Wednesday when gunmen critically wounded a local radio broadcaster, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. One of two men riding a motorcycle fired once at Harrison Manalac at about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, according to local news...

Local police arrested one of the alleged gunmen in the 2005 killing of journalist Philip Agustin on May 13 in Pampanga, a province approximately 81 km from Manila, according to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR). The Philippine National Police in Central Luzon arrested Nilo "Boy" Morete in Poblacion village, Mabalacat town, Pampanga at around 3:30 p.m. (local time) on May 13...