State Impunity

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has reminded leaders from democratic countries attending the 15 and 16 December 2006 ceremonies marking the start of another five-year term for Gambian President Yahya Jammeh in Banjul that 16 December will be the second anniversary of journalist Deyda Hydara's still unpunished murder. The organisation said it particularly warned Taiwanese Prime Minister Su...

A man purporting to lead an African branch of the al Qaeda militant network claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the beheading of a Sudanese newspaper editor who was found dead last week. The man, in a statement distributed to Sudanese newspapers, called editor Mohamed Taha a "dog of dogs from the ruling party", and accused him of insulting the prophet Mohammad. "Three individuals from this...

(IAPA/IFEX) - MIAMI, Florida (August 28, 2006) - In a new action in its hemisphere-wide awareness campaign aimed at bringing the murderers of journalists to justice, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today called on Mexico's President Vicente Fox to act to speed up the investigation into the death of news photographer Gregorio Rodríguez Hernández and bring to trial and convict those...

The family of a British cameraman shot dead by an Israeli soldier claimed yesterday that both the Foreign Office and the Israeli authorities had obstructed their search for justice. James Miller, 34, was killed by a single shot while making a documentary in the Gaza strip about Palestinian children. At an inquest opening yesterday in London, TV producer Daniel Edge told how he was with Mr Miller...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has said that the failure of the United States to respond to calls for independent investigation of cases where journalists and media staff have been killed by US soldiers is encouraging a culture of impunity in the killing of media staff. CRUEL JUSTICE: José Couso's funeral procession. José Couso, who worked for the Spanish television network...

Twenty-five years after the alleged rape and murder of a woman journalist in Orissa, a statue of hers has been put up in a village as a mark of respect. Chabirani Das was gangraped and murdered near the Beluakhai beach in the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur on Oct 3, 1980. She was staying along with her husband Naba and a child at Dihasaibiri village in the same district. Chabirani was a...

The Australian and British governments colluded to cover up the killing of five Australian-based journalists in East Timor in 1975, new documents have revealed. Five television journalists – Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham, Tony Stewart, Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters – were killed while covering Indonesia's invasion of East Timor. LAST SHOT: The word "Australia" and an Australian flag painted...

New York, May 23, 2005–The former presenter for a popular MTV-style music video program was shot and killed in her home in Kabul last week. Shaima Rezayee, 24, hosted the daily music program "Hop" on the private television channel Tolo TV until March. Police told The Associated Press that Rezayee was killed May 18 by a single bullet wound to the head and that members of her family may have been...

In a stunning upset, India's voters surprised the media and the world by rejecting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu nationalism in favor of the secular Indian National Congress party in general elections in May. However, despite the general disavowal of extremism at the polls, ethnic and religious tensions persisted in the world's largest democracy, posing onerous threats to...