State Impunity

Two prominent Somali radio journalists were killed in Mogadishu on Saturday, the first by gunmen in the morning and the second, the radio station's co-owner, in an explosion hours later as he returned from the reporter's funeral, according to news reports. The killings targeted Horn Afrik radio, which has been criticised by the Ethiopian-backed Somali government as well as hardline members of an...

An Iraqi photographer working for the Associated Press (AP) was kidnapped in Diyala province on Tuesday, while another journalist working for state-run al-Sabah newspaper has been reported missing, acording to reports. An armed group intercepted the car of AP photographer Talal Ahmed Abdullah in central Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, and took him to an unknown location, the independent...

Israel's attorney-general has asked Britain for more information about an analysis of an audio recording which may shed new light on the killing of British journalist James Miller in Gaza in 2003, the Guardian has reported. Britain's former attorney-general, Lord Goldsmith, wrote to his Israeli counterpart Menachem Mazuz in June, presenting the analysis and asking him to begin legal proceedings...

An interpreter and reporter in the Baghdad bureau of the New York Times was shot and killed Friday, the bureau chief, John F Burns, reported. Khalid W Hassan, 23, was the second Iraqi employee of the Times to be killed during the current conflict. Hassan was shot in the Seiydia district of south central Baghdad while driving to work under circumstances that remain unclear, Burns said. He had...

An Iraqi photographer and driver working for Reuters in Iraq have been killed in Baghdad, the agency has said. Photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, were killed in eastern Baghdad Thursday at a time when clashes had been taking place between US forces and militants in the area. Noor-Eldeen was single. Chmagh was married and had four children. Four other Reuters staff —...

Press freedom organisations have heaved a sigh of relief at the release early Wednesday morning local time of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, who had been held captive for over four months in the Gaza Strip. In the same breath, all have called for global action to protect journalists working in hostile environments. Johnston was abducted while on his way home from his office in Gaza City on the...

Six months after the murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, 18 suspects went on trial Monday in a case widely seen as a test of whether the country's judiciary will be able to investigate allegations of official negligence in the slaying, news reports said. Dink was gunned down on January 19 and his killing led to international condemnation and debate within Turkey about free speech...

Three more Iraqi journalists have been killed in the past two weeks, delayed reports have said. They bring the number of media workers killed in Iraq since the start of the year to 36, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). One of the many victims of a bombing in Al-Khalis (55 km north of Baghdad) on June 11 was Aref Ali Falih, 32, who had been the correspondent of the independent news...

Lydia Cacho Ribeiro is being threatened by both state and anti-state powers trying to muzzle free expression in Mexico and silence voices which expose their corruption and illegal activities. Lydia Cacho, 43, correspondent for CIMAC news agency and feature writer for 'Dia Siete' magazine in Mexico. Cacho, a journalist for more than two decades, has endured numerous death threats because of her

The body of an Iraqi newspaper editor kidnapped last week was found Sunday in Baghdad, police said. Gunmen ambushed Flayeh Wadi Mijthab, editor of the state-owned Al-Sabah newspaper, last Wednesday in eastern Baghdad as he was heading to work. His 25-year-old son and driver were left behind, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Mijthab's body was discovered Sunday near the Firdaws mosque in the al...