Killed

Valério Nascimento, a journalist involved in local politics, was gunned down Tuesday at the entrance to his home in Rio Claro, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. As a journalist, he had covered an alleged corruption case just a few days before the shooting, but the motive is not yet known. “Nascimento’s murder, which took place on World Press Freedom Day, is a reminder that Brazil is still a...

Radio journalist Julio Castillo Narváez’s murder in Virú (in the northwestern department of La Libertad) on May 3 has cast a further shadow over a day that is meant to be a celebration for journalists and media all over the world, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. Unidentified gunmen shot him six times while he was having lunch in a restaurant. His death was...

Journalist Siamak Pourzand, 80, a major cultural figure in Iran, has committed suicide. Detained and under house arrest for ten years, banned from leaving the country and separated from his family, Pourzand killed himself on April 29 in Tehran. "We hold the Iranian authorities responsible for this gesture of despair. Despite several appeals to the authorities by his family and various human rights...

Alfredo Hurtado, 45, a cameraman employed by the privately-owned TV station Canal 33, was gunned down in bus in the town of Ilopango, near the capital, Monday evening as he was on his way to work. The motive is not yet known. Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) expressed its support for Hurtado’s family and colleagues and the entire Salvadoran media, now in mourning...

The body David Niño de Guzmán, a journalist who had been missing since April 19, was found april 22 in La Paz. An explosive charge was apparently used to kill him. Residents in the area where the body was found heard an explosion in the early hours of the morning after he disappeared, the police chief said, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Niño was the...

The International Federation of Journalists has mourned the tragic death of photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, killed by a mortar attack in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata, on Wednesday April 20. Two other photojournalists, Guy Martin and Michael Christopher Brown, were both seriously injured in by the same mortar fire along Tripoli Street at the heart of the fight between...

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Bahraini authorities today to conduct an immediate and transparent investigation into the death in state custody of Karim Fakhrawi, founder and board member of Al-Wasat, the country's premier independent daily. Fakhrawi died Tuesday, a week after he was apparently taken into custody, according to news reports. Human rights defenders told CPJ that...

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Bahraini authorities to launch an immediate and thorough investigation into the death of a blogger while in state custody. Bahraini authorities, meanwhile, announced that they would file criminal charges against three senior editors at the Gulf kingdom's premier independent daily, continuing a months-long pattern of violence, harassment, and...

Brazilian journalist Luciano Leitão Pedrosa, known for his critical coverage of local authorities and criminal groups, was shot Saturday night at a restaurant in Vitória de Santo Antão in northeastern Pernambuco state, according to press reports. At about 9 p.m., a man entered a restaurant where Pedrosa had gone to buy food and shot him in the head, the Brazilian press reported. According to the...

Taha Al-Alawi, the head of satellite television station Al-Masar TV, was killed in the Werij district of southern Baghdad on Friday. Gunmen shot at the car in which he was travelling. Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) urged Iraqi authorities to carry out a proper investigation into this killing in order to find those responsible and bring them to justice. Impunity for...