State Impunity

Mexico is not at war. It is a democracy. And yet it is one of the world's most dangerous countries for the press. Twenty-one journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, seven of them in direct reprisal for their work. Since 2005, seven others have gone missing. Mexico ranks 10th on CPJ's impunity index, along with such war-ravaged countries as Iraq, Somalia, and Sierra Leone. The impact of

Three years after the murder of Franco-Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir in Beirut, French and Lebanese judicial authorities continue to be slow and callous in their response in this case in which no suspect has been detained or charged. Kassir’s widow, Giselle Khoury, has almost given up as she says, "Resolution seems to me to be very far away, too far. The many political changes, not only in

A year after the gruesome muder of Zakia Zaki, the director Sada-e-Solh (Peace Radio), her killers remain unpunished. Her husband says there has been no progress in the official investigation, probably because of pressure from those who ordered her murder. Zaki was shot in her home in Jabalussaraj, in the northern Afghanistan province of Parwan, in the early hours of June 6, 2007. “Today we pay

Police auxiliaries assaulted Rafael Marchante, a Spanish photographer employed by the British news agency Reuters, while he was covering a demonstration by jobless university graduates outside parliament in Rabat on May 21. "This is not the first time the security forces have attacked a journalist while dispersing demonstrators," Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières said in a statement. "The fact...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed concern at delays in the trial of two government officials accused of ordering the 2005 murder of columnist Marlene Garcia-Esperat. The trial has been brought to an indefinite halt because of questions surrounding jurisdiction. The Cebu Court of Appeals issued an injunction last week that bars the Cebu City Regional Trial Court from proceeding...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on the authorities in Afghanistan to do everything possible to protect women journalists, several of whom have been attacked or threatened since the start of the year. One, Niloufar Habibi, has continued to receive death threats since leaving hospital after being stabbed on May 15 in the northwestern city of Herat and has to change residence every day....

A month after journalist Fadel Shana was killed by an Israeli tank crew in the Gaza Strip, Reuters renewed its demand on Thursday for a prompt explanation from the Israeli army of why it fired on its cameraman. Shana, a 24-year-old Palestinian, was killed on April 16 along with eight mostly teenage bystanders by darts known as flechettes that burst out of a tank shell in mid-air. Shana had been...

The Israeli military said Wednesday that initial findings from its investigation into the killing of a Reuters news agency cameraman indicated that troops did not realize they were firing at a journalist, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Palestinian cameraman Fadel Shana, 23, was killed April 16 by tank fire while covering fighting between Israeli troops and Gaza militants. His colleague...

A Reuters cameraman was killed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in what appeared to be an Israeli military strike, the news agency reported. Fadel Shana, a 23-year-old Palestinian, was covering violence in the enclave. Two bystanders were also killed in an explosion after Shana stepped from his vehicle, apparently to film Israeli forces positioned several hundred meters (yards) away. His soundman...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed alarm at a report of a grenade attack on the home of a female radio journalist in Herat province, Afghanistan. It is the second attack on radio producer Khadija Ahadi’s home in two weeks. The Afghan Independent Journalists’ Association (AIJA), an IFJ associate, reported that unidentified gunmen threw a grenade inside Khadija’s home on...