Journalists Killed in 2009

31.12.2009

JANUARY - FEBRUARY - MARCH - APRIL - MAY - JUNE - JULY -
AUGUST - SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER - NOVEMBER - DECEMBER

Total number of Journalists' Deaths as of 31 December 2009

132

JANUARY

 17 January - Venezuela - Orel Sambrano

Orel Sambrano, Director of Radio America , the weekly ABC and a senior columnist of the daily Notitarde based in the city of Valencia in Carabobo state was killed on 17 January by gunmen on a motorbike who  shot him several times. Sambrano had received death threats for reporting on drug traffic cases. His death has shocked media community and the general public in Venezuela.

19 January - Russia - Anastasia Baburova

Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova, wounded earlier on Monday in the shooting of a lawyer in downtown Moscow, has died in hospital, the daily's deputy editor-in-chief said.
Baburova was walking with Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer for the family of a Chechen woman murdered in 2000 by Russian army colonel Yury Budanov, when an unknown assailant approached them from behind and shot the lawyer in the back of the head using a gun with a silencer. The gunman then shot the journalist, who was seriously injured and hospitalized.
"There are two versions [of what happened] - the first is that she was killed while trying to stop the killer, the second is that she was shot on purpose," editor Sergei Sokolov said, adding that the facts would only become clear after further investigation.
Baburova underwent surgery and was placed in intensive care, under police guard but died after 8 p.m. Moscow time (17:00 GMT).
Baburova, born in 1983, became a stringer with Novaya Gazeta last October and specialized in covering informal youth movements, including neo-Nazi groups.

24 January - Pakistan - Aamir Wakil

Aamir Wakil, 40, a married man with four children, was murdered close to his home in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. Wakil, who worked for "Awami Inqilab" (The People's Revolution), a regional daily based in Kohat, south of Peshawar, was shot in the back, near the neck. "He was just a few metres from his home when he was killed," his brother, Asfar, told Reporters Without Borders.

"Aamir told me two hours before he was murdered that he had received threats from unidentified persons," Asfar said. "It was a targeted murder. I do not think the authorities did it. His killers were not government people."

Rawalpindi-based journalists told Reporters Without Borders that Wakil was a "professional journalist" and that he had no rivals.

31 January - Kenya - Francis Kainda Nyaruri

Reporter Francis Nyaruri was found decapitated and with his hands bound on Thursday in a forest in western Kenya. Nyaruri, who wrote for the private Weekly Citizen under the pen name Mong'are Mokua, had been missing since January 15, according to local journalists and relatives.

Nyanza deputy police Chief Larry Kieng confirmed to reporters that Nyaruri's body was found in a thicket in Kodera Forest, Nyanza Province, on Thursday, decapitated with hands tied behind his back and marks on his body. Nyaruri's wife, Josephine Kwamboka, identified her husband at a Kisii hospital, according to local reports. Kieng said a team of senior officers had been dispatched to Nyamira to investigate the murder, the private daily The Standard reported.

Prior to his disappearance, Nyaruri had written a series of articles that exposed financial scams and other malpractice by the local police department, local journalists told CPJ. The journalists said Nyaruri had told them of unspecified threats by police officers in the area for articles he had written in the Weekly Citizen.

Nyaruri left his residence in Nyamira at about 7:30 am on January 15 and traveled 19 miles (30 kilometers) to Kisii to purchase construction materials, local journalists reported. Kwamboka told reporters that she had spoken to him at 11 a.m. the same day but did not hear from him again.

FEBRUARY

3 February - Iraq - Majid al-Sakr

A Baghdad official says an Iraqi sports editor has died of shrapnel wounds suffered in a roadside bombing more than two months ago.

Majid al-Sakr had been in a coma since the November 28 attack in Baghdad.

The head of the Iraqi Journalists' Union, Mouyyad al-Lami, says the 51-year-old journalist died on Tuesday in a hospital.

Al-Lami says the journalists worked for the privately owned daily Al-Bayana and that he is survived by a wife and five children.

4 February - Somalia - Said Tahlil Ahmed

Gunmen shot dead the head of private media house HornAfrik in Mogadishu.
Said Tahlil Ahmed was killed in Mogadishu's Bakara market, which is often a battleground for government soldiers and Islamist insurgents, witnesses and colleagues said.
"Two masked men armed with pistols turned into an alley and shot our friend Said dead," a local reporter, who was with him, told Reuters, asking not to be named.
"They shot him several times in the heart and he died on the spot. We ran away for our lives as they kept shooting."

7 February - Madagascar - Ando Ratovonirina

Ando Ratovonirina of privately-owned Radio et Télévision Analamanga (RTA) was shot dead while covering an anti-government demonstration outside the presidential palace in Antananarivo on 7 February 2009. The 25-year-old reporter and cameraman was among the scores of people who were killed or wounded when security forces opened fired on the protesters.
Ratovonirina was part of the RTA team covering a large demonstration organised by Antananarivo mayor Andry Rajoelina on 7 February to call for the replacement of President Marc Ravalomanana's government. He was shot in the head when members of the presidential guard opened fire on demonstrators as they surged towards the presidential palace. His body was immediately taken to Ravoahangy Hospital, where a doctor said he had been killed by a "gunshot wound behind the ear."
Fellow RTA journalists Heritina Ny Anjarason and Mirindra Raparivelo were with Ratovonirina at the time of the shooting.
Anjarason told Reporters Without Borders: "Ando was holding a microphone and was taking notes while Mirindra had a small camera. A delegation representing the mayor had gone to talk to the soldiers guarding the palace. When it returned, we approached the mayor's chief of staff, Gen. Dolin, to interview him about the outcome of the negotiations. We had not yet reached Gen. Dolin and we had our backs to the palace when the shooting started. We threw ourselves to the ground but Ando was hit all the same."
Ratovonirina had only recently completed his journalism studies and had been working for RTA for three months. He was previously a photographer for the "La Gazette de la Grande Ile" daily newspaper and used to write for the "Tophos" news agency under the pseudonym of Hathor.

7 February - Colombia - Maria Eugenia Guerrero

Police found the body of Colombian journalist Maria Eugenia Guerrero on the outskirts of the northern Ecuadorian city of Tulcan, near the nations' border, a local television said. The woman, who was working for the Integracion Estereo station in the southern Colombian city of Ipiales, was brutally assaulted and killed and her body was left in a remote area outside Tulcan, Ecuador's Ecuavisa television reported Friday. Guerrero, who hosted the program "Frontera Abierta" (Open Border), was last seen in Tulcan on Monday when she was leaving her relatives' home en route to Ipiales. The body, according to the forensics report, showed signs of sexual assault and it is presumed the journalist was killed in a violent manner because a portion of her skull was not found and had presumably been detached as a result of a severe blow.

12 February - Sri Lanka - Puniyamoorthy Sathiyamoorthy

Puniyamoorthy Sathiyamoorthy, journalist and political analyst, well-known and highly respected by the Tamils in Eelam and among diaspora Tamils, sustained serious injuries in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery barrage Thursday [12 February] on Theavipuram in the "safety zone" declared by Sri Lanka government in Mullaitheevu district in Vanni, and succumbed to his wounds. Lack of proper medical attention contributed to his death, according to relatives who cared for him after the incident.

13 February - Mexico - Jean Paul Ibarra

Photographer Jean Paul Ibarra of the local daily El Correo was killed and reporter Yenny Yuliana Marchan of the regional daily Diario 21 was injured in a shooting attack on 13 February in Iguala, in the southern state of Guerrero. Both worked for the crime section of their respective newspapers.
Ibarra, 33, and Marchan, 22, had been sent by their newspapers to the Iguala forensic medical centre following an accident that had occurred earlier that afternoon on the road between Iguala and Chilpancingo, the Guerrero state capital.
Marchan was riding pillion on Ibarra's motorcycle when five shots were fired at them with a 45-calibre pistol from another motorcycle that drew alongside. Hit in the chest and shoulder, Ibarra lost control of his motorcycle. Marchan was hit in the legs. Ibarra was shot again in the head as he lay on the ground.

16 February - Indonesia - Anak Agung Prabangsa

Anak Agung Prabangsa, a reporter with the Indonesian-language Radar Bali daily, was found floating off the coast of Bali island's Bias Tugel beach near Padangbai Bay. The 41-year-old journalist was first reported missing on February 12 by his family and Radar Bali staff members, the day after he left the newspaper's offices.

An initial autopsy report cited in news stories showed that Prabangsa sustained head injuries and a broken wrist before his death. The results also showed that he had salt water in his digestive system, indicating that he had been alive when he first entered the water, according Dudut Rustiyadi, the forensic team coordinator at Sanglah General Hospital, where the autopsy was conducted.

Radar Bali director Justin Herman told CPJ that two weeks before Prabangsa went missing he had received threatening calls and text messages on his cell phone. It wasn't immediately clear if the threats or his death were related to his reporting as a journalist or personal matters, according to Herman.

18 February - China - Bao Cunliang

The TV reporter, who fell from the roof of a 25-storey building as he was shooting in east China's Zhejiang Province, died Wednesday morning, according to a local TV official.
Bao Cunliang, 38, a Wenzhou TV Station reporter, died at 2:10 a.m. at the Wenzhou Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicines. He fell off the station's building at 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday, said Dong Jinghai, news director of the city-level TV station.
Bao was shooting streets in the rain by himself, but the view was obstructed by the wall surrounding the roof. Bao stood on the wall which was more than one meter high and only 20 cm wide, Dong said.
Dong said there was a strong wind at the time, but it was not clear whether the wind might have caused the reporter to fall.
Bao fell on the windshield of a car and was rushed to the hospital. His camera was smashed and lay in debris around him. He suffered brain and chest injuries in addition to several fractures.
Bao was married and had a 10-year-old daughter.

18 February - Pakistan - Mosa Khankhel

Mosa Khankel (also known as Musa Khan), a Geo TV reporter was killed in the Swat province of Pakistan by unknown gunmen.
Musa Khan, the slain TV journalist had been covering Taliban in Pakistan.
Prominent Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir said, "Musa was not only shot but also decapitated. He was continuously facing problems while reporting in Swat.The mood of celebration has been converted into mourning."
Dawn news inputs say that Musa Khan had received death threats from the local Taliban in the past.
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalist (PFUJ) has strongly condemned the murder of Musa Khan. Pakistan journalists have called for nationwide protest on Thursday.
Musa Khan was killed in Matta town. The slain reporter's body will be shifted to his hometown in Mingora city shortly.
This incident comes just hours after the Taliban took out another rally in Mingora in Swat. The rally celebrated the new code now to be official in the region.

22 February - South Africa - Steve Dlamini

The motoring editor of City Press newspaper Steve Dlamini was killed in a head-on collision on Sunday just before 11:00.
Dlamini, 32, was on his way to the A1 Grand Prix when the accident happened on Allandale Road just outside the Kyalami race track.
Little detail is yet available about the crash but according to sources Dlamini, who was travelling on a motorbike, was passing a line of traffic when he crashed into a BMW which was busy making a u-turn.
Dlamini was killed instantly. He is survived by his wife, Berenice, and two children.
Dlamini still attended a Renault product launch with fellow motoring journalists on Saturday.
Wheels24 editor Wilmer Muller said on Sunday that Dlamini’s death is a shock and a loss to our industry.

23 February - Philippines - Ernie Rollin

Misamis Occidental broadcaster Ernie Rollin was shot dead early morning in Oroquieta city while on his way to work in a radio station.
His live-in partner Ligaya, who was with him when the incident happened, told radio DxSY-AM, the shooting occurred around 5:30am at a gas station in barangay Talic.
It is where Rollin usually leaves his motorcycle before taking public transport for a 45-minute travel here.
The couple lives in Transville, a provincial government housing project.
Ligaya related that while Rollin was placing his motorcycle at a corner of the gas station, two motorcycle-riding men went near him. Several moments after, she said she heard three gunshots.
"I was not expecting it was Ernie who was targeted," she said, while still baffled about the incident.
When she checked on Rollin, she said she discovered he fell to the ground face down. Hence, she rushed to him from a nearby waiting shed where she earlier waited.
"At that time, I did not immediately notice he was bloodied," she recalled.
When she tried to assist Rollin to stand up, a man suddenly prevented her; and then pumped a bullet on his nape.
The two men, whom Ligaya said were wearing bonnets, then fled while she was left to attend to Rollin.
The local chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) immediately condemned "the brutality."
Rollin, in his mid-40s, is known for hard-hitting commentaries.

 

MARCH

3 March - LIbYa - Soad Faraj Abu Sheba

3 March - LIbYa - Salah Abdul Hamid

Soad Faraj Abu Sheba, a Libyan female journalist working for Kuurina newspaper was killed in a road traffic accident on her way to join the Gaza Aid convoy. Her two colleagues Salah Abdul Hamid and Ibrahim Hadiya Al Majdi were injured in the same car accident.
Salah Abdul Hamid, photographer for Kuurina newspaper later died of his wounds in hospital.

10 March - Iraq - Haidar Hashim Suhail

10 March - Iraq - Souhaib Adnan

Cameraman Haidar Hashim Suhail, 27, and correspondent Souhaib Adnan, 30, of Baghdadiya TV, a Cairo-based independent station, were killed in a suicide bombing west of Baghdad.

The suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a crowd of tribal leaders and senior security officials in a market in Abu Ghraib. The journalists were covering a reconciliation meeting attended by Sunni and Shi'a sheiks and prominent officials, including the deputy Interior Minister for tribal affairs.

In all, 33 people were killed in Tuesday's attack.

10 March - Afghanistan - Javed Yazamy

Javed Yazamy, a freelance cameraman, reporter and "fixer" was gunned down by unknown men in a drive-by shooting as he left his office in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Yazamy, 23, was shot in his vehicle along a main boulevard in Kandahar city, not far from the governor's palace, when another car pulled along the passenger side and a gunman opened fire. He died instantly. Yazamy - also known as Javed Ahmad but known to most by his nickname, Jojo - worked primarily as a cameraman for CTV News, but was often hired on a day-to-day basis by other media organizations as well, including The Canadian Press.

In 2007, he was arrested by United States forces and held at Bagram Air Base for about 11 months.

18 March - Iran - Omidreza Mirsayafi

Mirsayafi, 28, author of the cultural news blog, Rooznegar, died in  Tehran's Evin Prison, where he was serving a 30-month term on charges of insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the 1979 revolution.

Prison officials said Mirsayafi had committed suicide, the journalist's lawyer, Muhammad Ali Dadkhah, told the UK 's Times Online. Dadkhah‎ said Mirsayafi ‎had expressed concerns about his health, "‎but the doctors there didn't take this seriously and said he was faking it." Mirsayafi had just begun serving his prison term in February.

Hissam Fairoozy, an inmate, told Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) that Mirsayafi had suffered from depression and had been taken anti-depressant medication. Fairoozy, a physician, said that he was concerned about Mirsayafi's condition and had unsuccessfully sought to have prison doctors to hospitalize his fellow inmate.

Amirparviz Mirsayafi disputed claims that his brother suffered from depression. He told the U.S. government-funded Voice of America (VOA) on March 28 that his brother had no history of taking anti-depressant medication. He told VOA that his brother's body showed signs of abuse, including a left ear that "was covered with blood," he said. VOA posted a photo of Mirsayafi's face that showed facial bruises.

The government did not disclose any details about Mirsayafi's death.

Mirsayafi, in an interview with HRAI after being sentenced, said he had been coerced into making a false confession. He said the court didn't specify the blog entries that it considered offensive.

24 March - India - Anil Mazumdar

Seven unidentified men shot dead Anil Mazumdar, the Editor-in-Chief of a Guwahati-based Assamese daily ‘Aji’.

According to the police, Mazumdar was attacked while returning back from his office to his home at Rajgarh road at around 10.30 p.m. He was accosted by the criminal group while opening the gate of his residence and repeatedly shot at five times from a very close range. The vehicle that the gunmen arrived in has been captured by the police. A search operation has been launched for assailants.

Mazumdar, who was in his late thirties had been writing in favour of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) coming for talks with the government. He has always spoken against terror in the country’s northeast region.

25 March - Turkey - Ismail Gunes

Rescue workers found the wreckage of a downed helicopter Friday along with five bodies on a snow-covered mountain in southern Turkey, but a sixth passenger appeared to be missing.
Authorities had been searching for the crash site since Wednesday, when one of the passengers phoned an emergency hot line from his cell phone and begged for rescue.
The caller, a Turkish journalist, was among bodies found frozen inside the wreckage, rescue worker Abidin Karatas told private CNN-Turk television by telephone from the scene.
It was not immediately clear which of the six passengers was missing. Among the passengers had been Muhsin Yazicioglu, leader of a small political party.
The aircraft went down in bad weather Wednesday after leaving an election rally in Kahramanmaras province.
At least 2,000 soldiers, villagers and other rescue workers were involved in the search, which was hampered by snowfall and fog.
The journalist's anguished emergency call was broadcast nationwide Thursday. Ismail Gunes, a cameraman for Turkish news agency IHA, said he was wedged in the wreckage with a badly broken foot and was freezing. He said some of the other passengers appeared to be dead, and that his cell phone battery was running out.

26 March - Pakistan - Raja Asad Hameed

Unidentified armed men on Thursday night killed Raja Asad Hameed, senior reporter of a local English daily. The incident took place at 10pm, when the armed men came to Hameed’s house and rang the doorbell. When he opened the door, the men shot and killed him. A large number of journalists from Islamabad and Rawalpindi rushed to the Central Hospital and took Hameed’s body to his residence.

30 March - India - Venkatesh Chapalgaonkar

Venkatesh Chapalgaonkar, the Pune bureau chief of the Star Majha television channel, has been killed in a road accident near Sholapur.
According to a colleague, Chapalgaonkar was proceeding to Sholapur to cover a political event of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar Monday evening.
Around 30 km from Sholapur, the driver of the Tata Indica private taxi in which Chapalgaonkar and his colleague were travelling lost control and the vehicle plunged into a ravine over 30 feet deep.
While Chapalgaonkar, 39, died on the spot, the driver Balasaheb Kamble was declared dead on arrival at a Sholapur hospital.
Rajesh Bidkar, the Star Majha cameraman in the vehicle, sustained injuries and his condition was critical, said one of his colleagues.
Chapalgaonkar is survived by his wife, Rupa, also a television journalist with TV9 in Pune, and two sons - Param, 8, and Veer, 4.
Attached to the media for over 16 years, Chapalgaonkar worked in Maharashtra Times and Lokmat newspapers. Six years ago, he switched over to television journalism and joined Star News before shifting to Star Majha.

31 March - Honduras - Rafael Munguia

Two unidentified gunmen killed a journalist who reported on the wave of violent crime in Honduras, police said Wednesday.

Assailants stopped Rafael Munguia, 36, as he was driving Tuesday night in the city of San Pedro Sula, dragged him from his vehicle and shot him at least eight times, according to a news release from the San Pedro Sula police department.

It was not immediately clear if the shooting was tied to Munguia's work.

Munguia worked for Cadena Voces radio station. The station's news coordinator, Denis Cano, said the slain journalist had recently been reporting on the country's violent crime wave.

Munguia's colleague, Carlos Salgado, was shot to death outside the station in October 2007. A month later, the station's director, Dagoberto Rodriguez, left Honduras for two months after receiving death threats.

Cadena Voces went on the air in 2006. The radio station is often critical of President Manuel Zelaya's leftist administration.

 

APRIL

1 April - Guatemala - Rolando Santiz

Unidentified gunmen killed veteran reporter Rolando Santiz and injured cameraman Antonio de León.

At around 5:10 p.m., Santiz and de León, a news crew for the national television station Telecentro 13, were approached by two men on a motorcycle as they were driving to the station's offices in Guatemala City, according to local news reports and CPJ interviews. The assailants shot at the car repeatedly, killing Santiz immediately and injuring de León in the head, jaw, and chest.

De León was taken to the Hospital General San Juan de Dios, Elsie Sierra, a spokeswoman for the TV station, told CPJ. A hospital spokesman told local reporters today that de León was in stable condition.

16 APRIL- PAKISTAN - WASI AHMAD QURESHI

Gunmen fired at point-blank range on Qureshi and his colleague, Muhammad Siddiq Mosiani, near a newsstand in Khuzdar district in the southwestern province of Baluchistan on April 11, according to Qureshi’s editor at the Baluchistan Express and local news reports. Qureshi was treated in a hospital for two gunshot wounds to the stomach, but died five days later, news reports said. Mosiani survived. The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

18 April - honduras - Osman López

Osman López was shot to death on 18 April 2009, in the capital, Tegucigalpa. The 27-year-old journalist worked for the presidential palace's Department of Communications and for "La Tribuna" newspaper. He was also a correspondent for the Canal 45 television station.
Osman López was shot by unknown individuals while he was in a vehicle with his cousin and a friend. The assailants pretended to ask for a cigarette and opened fire, killing him instantly. The journalist's cousin was seriously injured and taken to hospital.

24 April - Colombia - Jose Everardo Aguilar

Jose Everardo Aguilar, a reporter for the privately-owned regional radio stations Radio Super and Bolivar Estereo, was gunned down in his home in El Bordo, a town in the southwestern department of Cauca. The gunman, an apparent contract killer, entered Everardo's home on the evening of 24 April on the pretext of bringing him information and photos. Once inside, he shot Everardo three times, killing him instantly.
Very popular in the Cauca region, Everardo had often talked on the air about alleged corruption cases involving the departmental government. One of his sons told journalists that he had received threats.

 

MAY

3 May - Mexico - Carlos Ortega Samper

A Mexican journalist who was critical of local authorities in the northern state of Durango was fatally shot by unidentified assailants. In a piece published a day before the killing, the reporter wrote that he had been threatened by local government officials.
Around 5 p.m. on Sunday, two pickup trucks intercepted Carlos Ortega Samper, a reporter for the Durango City-based daily El Tiempo de Durango, as he was driving home in the town of Santa María El Oro, 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of the state capital, colleagues told CPJ. Four unidentified individuals got off the trucks and pulled the reporter from his car, journalists at El Tiempo de Durango said. As Ortega resisted, his assailants shot him three times in the head with a .40-caliber pistol, according to press reports and CPJ interviews. Ortega, 52, died at the scene.
In an article published Saturday, Ortega alleged that Mayor Martín Silvestre Herrera and Juan Manuel Calderón Guzmán, the local representative for federal programs, had threatened him in connection with recent reporting on conditions in a local slaughterhouse. In the same story, Ortega wrote that he was investigating a local police officer, Salvador Flores Triana, for alleged corruption. The journalist said that the three men should be held responsible if anything were to happen to him or his family.
Ortega, also an attorney, had worked as the Santa María El Oro correspondent for El Tiempo de Durango for less than a year. His editor, Saúl García, told CPJ that he believes Ortega was killed in retaliation for his reporting on local government corruption. However, he said he could not pinpoint a specific story.
García told CPJ that the state attorney’s office was investigating Ortega’s murder. Authorities have not made a motive public.
Coverage of the killing in the Mexican press made reference to Ortega’s last story and his accusations against the three officials. The stories did not quote the officials as responding.

10 May - Guatemala - Jorge Mérida Pérez

Jorge Mérida Pérez, of national daily Prensa Libre, who was shot dead at his home in Coatepeque, Quetzaltenango department in the west of the country on 10 May.
The 40-year-old, whose family said he had recently been threatened, was the second journalist to be murdered in Guatemala since the start of the year.
Mérida Pérez was sitting at his computer working on an article, when an unidentified assailant on a motorbike parked outside his home and entered the house, the front door of which had been left open. He fired four shots at the journalist, who was hit in the face and died instantly. His son, Jorge Luis, aged 14, who was in the next room, was unhurt.
Police were said by the Guatemala press to be pursuing two leads unconnected with the journalist’s work: one of a crime of passion and the second of possible revenge by a local armed group. His family said that the journalist had recently received threats, but it was not known who was behind them.

22 May 2009 - SOMALIA - Abdirisak Warsameh Mohamed

Abdirisak Warsameh Mohamed of Radio Shabelle was shot dead in a crossfire as government forces tried to dislodge the Islamists in the neighborhoods of Bakara Market. He was killed as he crossed the road at Wardhigley police station, according to Director of Radio Shabelle Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe. Abdirisak was on his way to Radio Shabelle when bullets hit him in the chest. He died instantly.

26 May - Somalia - Nur Muse Hussein

Nur Muse Hussein, 56, a veteran journalist working for Radio Voice of Holy Quran, died from injuries he sustained from a targeted shooting in Beledweyne city of Hiran region in Central Somalia on 20 April 2009. Nur Muse Hussein also known as Nur Inji was wounded while he was trying to cover fighting between militias loyal to Hiran Regional Administration and Hisbul Islam, an Islamic movement that operates in southern central regions of Somalia.

According to fellow journalists and his widow, Nur Muse Hussein was wounded by one of the fighters after he and three colleagues identified themselves as journalists. Nur was injured by bullets that came through his leg. Nur Muse Hussein was in serious condition since the attack but his condition deteriorated. Nur Muse Hussein left 5 children and a widow.

26 May - Mexico - Eliseo Barrón Hernández

Eliseo Barrón Hernández, a reporter and photographer for the Torreón-based daily La Opinión, was abducted from his house in the city of Gómez Palacio, Durango. At least eight hooded gunmen entered Barrón's home, beat the reporter and forced him out of the house and into a white Nissan Tsuru that was parked outside, his wife told local reporters.  
Authorities found his body  Barrón's body was found with a gunshot wound to his head in an irrigation ditch.
Barrón, 35, had covered the police beat for 10 years for La Opinión, which is based out of neighboring Coahuila state. In the days prior to his kidnapping, the journalist had covered a corruption scandal in the Torreón police that had resulted in the firing of 302 police officers and the investigation of at least 20 others.

31 May - Iraq - Alaa Abdel-Wahab

Al-Baghdadia television correspondent, Alaa Abdel-Wahab, was killed by a bomb attached to his car in Mosul, in northern Iraq, on Sunday.
Alaa Abdel-Wahab, a sports journalist with the Cairo-based station, was killed in the bombing, which also wounded Sultan Jerjis, a sports presenter with local radio station Al-Rasheed, local watchdog group the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory reported. Jerjis is said to be in stable condition, with injuries to his legs. It was unclear why the journalists were targeted.
Abdel-Wahab and Jerjis, who were on assignment to cover a story on the local Olympic committee, had just finished eating lunch and were getting into Abdel-Wahab's car when the bomb exploded, The Associated Press reported. Abdel-Wahab, 37, was severely wounded and was rushed to the city's main hospital where he was pronounced dead.

 

JUNE

3 June - Philippines - Jojo Trajano

A tabloid journalist and a policeman were killed Wednesday in an attack by suspected drug peddlers in an eastern Philippine province, a regional police chief said.
Chief Superintendent Perfecto Palad identified the victims as Jojo Trajano, a reporter for tabloid newspaper Remate, and police officer Virgilio de la Cruz.
Palad said a team of police officers were on their way to conduct a raid on a hideout of suspected drug peddlers and car thieves in Taytay town in Rizal province, 25 kilometres east of Manila, when they were ambushed by the suspects.
Trajano tagged along with the raiding team to cover the operations, Palad added.
Palad said both victims sustained multiple gunshot wounds and were declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital.
On Tuesday, seven suspected robbers were killed in a police raid in nearby Antipolo City in an intensified campaign against crime groups operating in Rizal province and nearby provinces, including metropolitan Manila.

6 June - Somalia - Muktar Mohamed Hirabe

Muktar Mohamed Hirabe, director of Radio Shabelle, was killed by two men with pistols in Bakara Market, Mogadishio. The attackers killed on the spot Muktar Mohamed Hirabe after shooting him at least five times in the head. Muktar Mohamed Hirabe, 48, is the fifth journalist assassinated in Somalia this year. He is also the third journalist murdered in this year from Radio Shabelle and in Mogadishu. Muktar Mohamed Hirabe had two wives and five children.

6 June - Guatemala - Marco Antonio Estrada

An unidentified gunman shot and killed Guatemalan television reporter Marco Antonio Estrada on Saturday night in the eastern city of Chiquimula.
Estrada covered general news, which included organized crime and drug trafficking, for the national television station Tele Diario. Local reporters told CPJ that Estrada’s region has experienced both increasing criminality and drug trafficking recently.
Around 8 p.m. on Saturday, an unidentified individual approached Estrada as he was stepping off his motorcycle on a street in Chiquimula, 138 miles (222 kilometers) east of Guatemala City, the assailant fired four shots, killing Estrada immediately, Amílcar Rodas Ruano, a reporter for Tele Diario, told CPJ. Witnesses quoted in the local press said the gunman fled in a car that was parked at the scene of the crime. Rodas said Estrada’s cell phone was missing.
Estrada, 39, had worked for more than 20 years as a journalist, local reporters told CPJ. He had covered Chiquimula for Tele Diario for the last 10 years, reports in the local press said. Estrada’s wife told local reporters that she did not know of any threats against her husband. Chiquimula reporters told CPJ that local authorities are looking into Estrada’s work as a possible motive.

09 JUNE - PHILIPPINES - CRISPIN PEREZ

Philippines radio commentator Crispin Perez was stabbed and shot on his way home after broadcasting his morning show on DWDO radio station. The commentator, who was also a lawyer and a former governor of Occidental Mindoro, was murdered by an unidentified man who fled on a motorcycle.

17 June - Philippines - Antonio Castillo

Two men on a motorcycle chased and killed a community newspaper commentator on a remote island in the central Philippines, a press watchdog said on Wednesday, the fifth journalist murdered in the country this year.

Antonio Castillo was shot at close range by two men after a brief chase in Uson town on Masbate island on June 12, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said in a statement.

Castillo, a columnist for community paper "Bigwas" (Blow), died while being treated at a hospital, but he was able to give the identity of his attackers to investigators, CMFR said, quoting Uson town police chief Aurora Moran.

"It was possible the killing was work-related," Luis Teodoro, a journalism professor at the University of the Philippines and CMFR deputy director, told Reuters.

"Of course, we're getting alarmed. In a span of just a week, we have two journalists killed for reporting and commenting on alleged corruption at the community level. Government must do more to discourage violence against journalists."

Three days before Castillo's murder, radio host Crispin Perez was shot dead in front of his house in San Jose City on Mindoro island, also in the central Philippines.

Teodoro said Perez hosted two talk shows at a state-owned radio station in Occidental Mindoro province and had strongly criticised local mining and energy interests in the province.

19 June - India - Prakash kumar Nath

A photo journalist died after he fell on a rock while trying to photograph an ill elephant inside a forest, about 30 km from here on Friday.
Prakash Kumar Nath (42), who was working for Oriya daily 'Sambad', was taking photograph of the elephant, suspected to have fallen ill due to sun-stroke, in Kanibandhali forest at Jamankira area when the jumbo suddenly got up and advanced towards him with its trunk up, police said.
Fearing an attack by the elephant Nath turned back and fell on a rock while trying to move away.
As he was badly injured he was rushed to VSS Medical College and Hospital near here but died on the way, the police said.

27 June - Philippines - Jonathan Petalvero

A masked gunman shot and killed Jonathan Petalvero in a restaurant in Bayagun, a small town on the southern island of Mindanao, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and international news reports. The gunman fled the scene on a motorcycle, according to the reports. The commentator, who hosted a radio program on DXFM station, was declared dead on arrival at the local hospital, the reports said.
Petalvero's commentary aired as "block-time" broadcasting, a common practice in the Philippines in which commentators buy airtime from local stations and solicit their own advertising.
In this case, Petalvero's commentary aired on a station owned by a local politician, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.

29 June - South Africa - Wolfgang Jost

A freelance German journalist covering the Confederations Cup tournament in South Africa died on Monday after a car accident.
Wolfgang Jost, 57, a former sports editor of the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel was injured in the crash on 25 June while going to a match in Bloemfontein.
He never recovered consciousness after the accident, which happened on the way to the Spain v United States semi-final.
Three other journalists were also injured in the crash but survived and have since returned home.

29 June - Russia - Vyacheslav Yaroshenko

Vyacheslav Yaroshenko, editor-in-chief of the Rostov-on-Don newspaper Korruptsiya i Prestupnost, succumbed to head injuries suffered in an April attack, according to press reports. Yaroshenko was found unconscious with a head wound in the entrance of his apartment building early on the morning of April 30. He was hospitalized with skull and brain trauma, underwent surgery, and spent five days in a coma, his deputy, Sergei Sleptsov, told CPJ at the time.
Sleptsov told Russian news outlets today that Yaroshenko's condition had taken a turn for the worse in the past few days; doctors operated again today, but the editor did not survive. Sleptsov told press outlets that Rostov police did not investigate what happened to Yaroshenko in April, but said they had immediately ruled out criminality.
Sleptsov said he believes Yaroshenko was attacked in retaliation for his newspaper's work. Korruptsiya i Prestupnost, an independent paper whose title translates as "Corruption and Crime," has reported on corruption allegations involving Rostov law enforcement agencies. "I don't have even the smallest doubt," Sleptsov told the opposition news Web site Kasparov. "Our newspaper was published on eight pages; seven of them were allotted to corruption in the law enforcement structures."
In the weeks before the incident, Korruptsiya i Prestupnost had published a number of articles on alleged corruption in the Rostov regional government, police, and the prosecutor's office. Sleptsov confirmed today that the paper is carrying out its own investigation into the editor's death.

JULY

3 July - Honduras - Gabriel Fino Noriega

A journalist has been murdered in a town on the Caribbean coast of Honduras, but the killing is not linked to the political unrest sparked by last week’s coup, police said.
Gabriel Fino Noriega was killed by an unidentified man “supposedly over personal animosity” in San Juan Pueblo, a town in Atlantida province, some 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Tegucigalpa, a police spokesman said.
Fino Noriega, who was Tegucigalpa-based Radio America’s correspondent in San Juan Pueblo, was shot three times, the police spokesman said.
The journalist was attacked while getting into his automobile after filing a report at a radio station in San Juan Pueblo, a Radio America spokesman told Efe.
The killing “is not linked, it had nothing to do” with the political crisis caused by the ouster last Sunday of President Mel Zelaya, the Radio America spokesman said.
Both supporters and opponents of the ousted president have attacked reporters and media outlets, including foreign press organizations, in recent days.

4 July - SOMALIA - Yusuf Mohamed

Journalist Mohamud Mohamed Yusuf, nicknamed Ninile, of Radio Holy Quran (IQK) was shot at the stomach two times around 08:00am (local time) at Afarta Jardin conjunction in north Mogadishu, according to Mohamed Abdi Gedi, Editor-in-chief of IQK.

Mohamud Mohamed Yusuf, 22, died for blood loss after he was at the side of the road almost 3 hours without medical assistance, as fighters were firing shots whoever that wanted to take the journalist the hospital. He left from the Radio station after reading the news headlines at 07:30am, according to Mohamed Abdi.

The late journalist was reporter, newscaster and sometimes producer for IQK Radio. When the bullets hit him, the journalist was assigned to cover the ongoing fighting in the neighbourhoods of the FM station.

04 JULY - RUSSIA - NELYA LONGORTOVA

04 JULY - RUSSIA - VICTOR KURTYAMOV

04 JULY - RUSSIA - NATALYA OSTANINA

Three members of a TV crew lost their lives when the boat in which they were returning from a week’s filming overturned on the River Ob. Nelya Longortova, Victor Kurtyamov and Natalya Ostanina and three other members of the Yamal-Region TV and radio company were travelling in a boat with a crew of three, making a programme about the seasonal flooding of the region and the local fishing industry. According to reports the captain decided to ignore a storm warning and continue the voyage home. The characteristic seasonal weather, short spells of rain with sudden very fast gusts of wind (up to 12 metres a second), resulted in a 3-metre high wave that capsized the boat. Six survived but Longortova, Kurtyamov and Ostanina were drowned and their bodies were not found until 20 July.

14 July - Mexico - Martín Javier Miranda Avilés

Martín Javier Miranda Avilés, a newspaper reporter for the Panorama and correspondent for the Quadratin was found stabbed to death in his own home on 14 July.

15 JULY - RUSSIA - NATALIA ESTEMIROVA

Courageous human rights defender and journalist Natalia Estemirova was abducted and murdered. Estemirova, of Russian-Chechen descent, worked at the Grozny office of Memorial, Russia's best known rights organisation. Tenacious in her investigations into torture, killings and other abuses in Chechnya, Estemirova was awarded for her courage by the Swedish and European parliaments. Witnesses reported hearing Estemirova calling out that she was being kidnapped as she was forced into a van around 8.30 am as she left her home in Grozny. Her body was found some hours later in woodland in neighbouring Ingushetia. She had been shot in the head and chest. Aged 50, Natalia Estemirova leaves behind her 15-year old daughter.

16 July - Mexico - Ernesto Montanez Valdivia

Ernesto Montanez Valdivia, the editor of Enfoque magazine, was shot dead while his son was driving him in a pickup truck. The incident took place in Ciudad Juarez. Montanez Valdivia sustained wounds to the chest and neck before dying.

25 July - Georgia - Nino Gigashvili

25 July - Georgia - Dato Avaliani

25 July - Georgia - Joni Kublashvili

25 July - Georgia - Giorgi Mgaloblishvili

Four journalists from the Rioni regional TV station were killed at the corner of Ninoshvili Street and Aghmashenebeli Avenue in a car accident in Kutaisi. They were returning home from work when a vehicle, presumably a BMW jeep, slammed into their car and then fled the scene. Journalist Nino Gigashvili and cameraman Dato Avaliani died at the scene. Joni Kublashvili and Giorgi Mgaloblishvili died in the ambulance en route to hospital.

28 July - Philippines - Godofredo Linao

Godofredo Linao, a radio journalist working for Radyo Natin, was shot dead by two unidentified men near the station's offices, where he worked as a commentator, in Surigao del Sol province on southern Mindanao Island. Radyo Natin's manager and owner, Mario Alviso said Linao had been summoned to Barabo township by text message at around 1 a.m., according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. Linao was about to board his motorcycle when the men fired at him four times, killing him on the spot. The men fled the scene.Local reports suggest Linao may have been targeted for his political broadcasts.

28 July - Mexico - Juan Daniel Martínez Gil

Juan Daniel Martínez Gil, anchor of the radio news programs "W Acapulco" on national W Radio and "Guerrero en vivo" on local Radiorama Acapulco, was found buried in a vacant lot in the town of La Máquina in state of Guerrero. The journalist had been badly beaten, his hands and feet were tied, and his head was wrapped in brown tape, authorities told the local press.
Enrique Silva, Radiorama Acapulco's news director, said that Martínez was extremely cautious when reporting the news and didn't investigate sensitive topics such as drug trafficking or army and police activities in Acapulco. Silva said that Martínez had not informed him of any threats. Colleagues said they believed the killing was related to Martínez's work although they were unable to pinpoint a specific story. 

AUGUST

5 August - Canada - Hugh Haugland

Two people were killed when a helicopter crashed Wednesday morning northwest of Montreal.

The chopper went down about 240 kilometres from Montreal, killing the pilot and a passenger on board.

One of the people killed in the crash was Hugh Haugland, a veteran camera operator who worked for CTV News.

Haugland, 44, was the father of two daughters and was the son of former CTV anchorman Bill Haugland, who retired in 2006.

Haugland was shooting footage of the destruction left behind by a tornado that touched down in the area on Tuesday night.

The other person killed in the crash was Roger Belanger, a veteran pilot and local businessman who was in his 60s.

The helicopter crashed near Highway 117 in Mont-Laurier in the Laurentians.

One witness told Quebec news channel RDI that the helicopter was burning after it hit the ground, and nothing could be done to save the people inside.

11 August - Russia - Abdulmalik Akhmedilov

Akhmedilov, 32, left, was shot in his car at around 1 p.m. local time on the outskirts of Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, the independent Caucasus news Web site Kavkazsky Uzel reported.

The Dagestan Investigative Committee, the region's investigative office, has opened a probe into the murder, the agency reported on its Web site.

Akhmedilov, known as Malik, was deputy editor of the Makhachkala-based daily Hakikat (The Truth) and a chief editor of the political monthly Sogratl­. Both newspapers are published in Avar, the language of the largest ethnic group in the volatile, multiethnic southern republic of Dagestan.

In columns in Hakikat, Akhmedilov sharply criticized federal forces and local law enforcement for suppressing religious and political dissent under the guise of an "anti-extremism" campaign, Zulfiya Gadzhiyeva, a Hakikat journalist, told CPJ. The campaign is ostensibly designed to curb the spread of the conservative form of Islam known as Wahhabism, which has gained popularity in Dagestan and other North Caucasus republics.

According to the Russian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Akhmedilov was known for his investigative reporting into the recent assassinations of Dagestan officials. Akhmedilov did not report receiving any threats, Gadzhiyeva said.

Gadzhiyeva, who visited the crime scene and met with Akhmedilov's wife and neighbors, said at least one killer was parked in the editor's neighborhood in a Lada sedan with tinted windows and no license plates. When Akhmedilov left home in his car for an errand, the Lada followed and at least one gunman fired, Gadzhiyeva told CPJ.

Gadzhiyeva told CPJ that Akhmedilov's neighbors had seen the same Lada parked in the neighborhood for at least two days prior to the killing. Akhmedilov did not have any business interests; journalism was his sole occupation, she said.

14 AUGUST - PAKISTAN - SIDDIQUE BACHA KHAN

Unidentified gunmen shot Bacha Khan in the city of Mardan in Pakistan’s restive North West Frontier Province, according to news reports. A correspondent for the independent Aaj TV channel, Bacha Khan was ambushed and shot at close range, the channel reported on its Web site. Earlier, he had interviewed family members of a former military official who was killed by the Taliban, and was returning to the office when he was shot, the channel’s bureau chief, Imtiaz Awan, said. The journalist died en route to the hospital, according to Aaj TV and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.

17 August - Azerbaijan - Novruzali Mamedov

Novruzali Mamedov, editor of the now-defunct minority newspaper Talyshi Sado, who has been in state custody since February 2007, died in prison.
According to Azerbaijani Penitentiary Service spokesman Mekhman Sadygov, the journalist appears to have suffered a stroke. Results from an official autopsy have not yet been released, the Azeri Press Agency reported.
Mamedov's health severely deteriorated in the past few months, his lawyer, Ramiz Mamedov (no relationship to the journalist), told CPJ. He was admitted to a hospital in the Azerbaijani Penitentiary Service on July 28. Last Saturday, the editor told his lawyer that the medical treatment he was receiving was inadequate and his health was not improving. According to his lawyer, Mamedov, 68, suffered from a number of illnesses, including hypertension, bronchitis, neuritis, and a prostate tumor.
According to news reports, authorities refused to release Mamedov on humanitarian grounds and did not allow him to receive independent medical treatment. Earlier this month, the Council of Europe's representative to Azerbaijan, Veronika Kotek, and Azerbaijani Ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova urged Azeri authorities to transfer Mamedov to a civilian hospital, the Baku-based Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) reported.
Another spokesman for the Penitentiary Service, Mekhman Aliyev, said Mamedov was happy with the treatment he was receiving at the prison hospital and had refused a transfer to an outside medical facility, the independent news Web site Lenta reported. He did not clarify whether he had discussed a possible transfer with the journalist.
Aliyev's statement contradicts testimony by Mamedov's colleagues and supporters. According to Emin Huseynov, IRFS director, prison authorities refused to fulfill a local court's ruling earlier this year that had ordered the Penitentiary Service to provide medical treatment to Mamedov starting in March. Huseynov said Azerbaijani authorities refused to allow independent medical treatment offered by a European Union delegation that visited Mamedov in prison in June. Mamedov's brother told Huseynov that prison authorities returned half of the prescription medications that his family had tried to pass to him in prison.
Huseynov said he did not notice any bruises or other marks on Mamedov's body at the funeral today that would suggest a violent death, but said the journalist had lost a lot of weight and was unrecognizable.
Mamedov had been in state custody since February 2007, initially on a trumped-up charge of resisting arrest, which was then changed to a treason charge. A three-month- long, closed-door trial culminated in a 10-year jail sentence. In June 2008, Judge Shakir Alekserov of the Court for Grave Crimes pronounced Mamedov guilty of treason. Authorities never made their evidence against Mamedov public. News reports said the case was based on an allegation that Mamedov had received money from Iran to publish Talyshi Sado.
The small, twice-weekly publication for Azerbaijan's ethnic Talysh minority folded after his arrest.

20 August - Brazil - Dalvison Nogueira de Souza

Dalvison Nogueira de Souza was driving his car in Recife, Pernambuco (northeast) when two men on a motorcycle shot him, causing him to lose control and crash, Jornal do Commercio reports. Souza, who covered sports and police news for several radio stations, died at the scene, and the killers fled.
Police were investigating his killing as an execution or a robbery attempt, but none of his belongings were taken, the pe360graus.com site says.

23 August - D R Congo - Bruno Koko Chirambiza

A journalist for a private radio station in the Democratic Republic of Congo was stabbed to death in the eastern town of Bukavu, his employer, Radio Star, said Sunday.
Bruno Koko Chirambiza, 24, died at a Bukavu hospital after receiving "two stabs with a knife when he was attacked by an unidentified group as he returned home from a wedding in the company of a friend", opposition member of parliament Pierre Pay Pay told AFP.
Pay Pay, who owns Radio Star, said the killing was "premeditated, an assassination.
"They were followed from the party which took place five kilometres (three miles) from his home near where he was killed. He was the target. Nothing was stolen."
Congolese Communication and Media Minister Lambert Mende told AFP he was "devastated" after being told of the murder but said investigators were still looking for a motive.
"The atmosphere in Bukavu is unsettling," said Mende.
"We have been aware of FDLR (Rwandan Hutu rebels) elements in the town for a couple of weeks ... We have the impression that these people do not want the situation to stabilise and attack opinion leaders, and notably journalists, to impress the rest of the community," he said.
Government troops have been fighting the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and other armed groups in eastern Congo for months.
"We are looking into whether (the journalist) has been presenting programmes on ongoing army operations," said Pay Pay.
The journalist had been working for Radio Star for two years.

24 August - Pakistan - Janullah Hashimzada

Gunmen shot dead an Afghan journalist known as an outspoken critic of the Taliban as he travelled by bus through Pakistan's Khyber Pass on Monday, a Pakistani government official said.
Janullah Hashimzada was bureau chief in Pakistan for Afghanistan's Shamshad television channel and was travelling from Afghanistan when he was attacked.
"The attackers in a Toyota Corolla car intercepted the bus and made it stop and then they went inside and shot him dead," Rehan Khattak, a government official in Jamrud, the main town in the Khyber region, told Reuters.
One passenger was wounded, he said.
Khattak declined to say who might have been behind the attack.
Journalists in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province where Hashimzada was based, said the journalist was a vocal critic of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
Violence has increased in Khyber over the past year with Pakistani Taliban launching attacks in an attempt to cut off supplies bound for Western forces in Afghanistan.
Kidnap and smuggling gangs also operate in the region, some of whose members also pose as Islamist militants.

 

SEPTEMBER

2 September - El Salvador - Christian Poveda

Journalists paid tribute on Thursday to their murdered colleague, the French-Spanish filmmaker Christian Poveda, after he was shot dead in a gang-ridden suburb in El Salvador.
"We are all in shock," said Jean-Francois Leroy, head of the Visa Pour L'Image photojournalism festival in southern France where one of Poveda's films premiered last year.
"Everyone told him it was dangerous. But he said he was sure he was in no danger."
The Spanish-born Poveda, 54, was shot dead Wednesday night on a road north of the capital San Salvador, on his way back from a film shoot in the gang-controlled suburb La Campanera, according to police officials.
The French foreign ministry confirmed that Poveda has been murdered, describing him in a statement as "a great professional who did not hesitate to take great risks in the service of freedom of information."
Poveda had reported extensively on Latin America, producing photojournalism and documentaries for media in Europe and the United States.
One of his recent films -- "La Vida Loca" about the Mara street gangs of El Salvador -- is set for national release across France on September 30.
Alain Mingan, a friend and fellow journalist, paid tribute to "a great professional, widely respected in the world of photojournalism and documentary-making."
"He wanted to show what remained of humanity in this world of violence, and he has paid the price for it."

9 September - Afghanistan - Sultan Munadi

Stephen Farrell, a New York Times reporter held captive by militants in northern Afghanistan, was freed in a military commando raid early Wednesday, but his Afghan interpreter was killed during the rescue effort.

Armed gunmen seized Mr. Farrell and his interpreter, Sultan Munadi, four days ago while they were working in a village south of Kunduz.

Mr. Farrell and Mr. Munadi were abducted on Saturday while they were reporting the aftermath of NATO airstrikes on Friday that exploded two fuel tankers hijacked by Taliban militants. Afghan officials have said up to 90 people, including many civilians, were killed in the attack, which NATO officials are now investigating.

Mr. Munadi had worked regularly with The Times and other news organizations.

“We were all in a room, the Talibs all ran, it was obviously a raid,” Mr. Farrell said. “We thought they would kill us. We thought should we go out.”

Mr. Farrell said as he and Mr. Munadi ran outside, he heard voices. “There were bullets all around us. I could hear British and Afghan voices.”

At the end of a wall, Mr. Farrell said Mr. Munadi went forward, shouting: “Journalist! Journalist!” but dropped in a hail of bullets. “I dived in a ditch,” said Mr. Farrell, who said he did not know whether the shots had come from allied or militant fire.

20 SEPTEMBER - NIGERIA - OGUNBAYO OHU

Ogunbayo Ohu, the  assistant news editor and political reporter of the Guardian newspaper in Nigeria, was shot dead in his apartment in Egbeda, a Lagos suburb. According to the statement published on the Guardian Website, about six men dressed in white flowing gowns with matching skull caps fired a volley of bullets at Ohu when he answered his door. The gunmen who travelled in a white Toyota Camry followed him in the house and shot him several times. The assailants took Ohu’s laptop and mobile phone. He was pronounced dead on his arrival at the Ikeja general hospital. The International Federation of Journalists said the murder had all the hallmarks of a targeted killing.

22 September - Colombia - Diego Rojas Velásquez

Community television journalist Diego Rojas Velásquez, working for Supía TV, was lured into an ambush before being shot dead near Caramanta, in the north-western Antioquia department. The journalist, who was based at Supía, in the neighbouring department of Caldas, had received a telephone call offering him a story immediately before he was murdered. He mainly covered areas such as health and education but covered also crime stories.
The motive for his killing remains unclear. Supía TV was not aware of any threat made against him. Rojas was shot four times when he was on the road to Caramanta, in the early evening shortly after receiving a call at his office. Rojas had spent only two months working for the community station, which covers the municipalities of Supía and Riosucio.

23 September - Mexico - Norberto Miranda

Norberto Miranda, 44, was shot dead in front of his colleagues by a drug hitmen in the rural town of Nuevo Casas Grandes in Chihuahua state near the U.S. border. Gunmen shot Miranda several times and escaped. "His body was found full of bullets in the radio's offices," said a spokesman for the Chihuahua attorney general's office, Vladimir Tuexi.
The newspaper El Diario said Miranda, who was well-known locally, had recently reported on growing drug violence in the remote area of Chihuahua state, which cartels use to run narcotics into Texas.

29 September - Czech Republic - Rosa Ajiri

RFE/RL's Persian-language Service, Radio Farda, is mourning the tragic loss of two of its finest journalists and praying for a third who is in a coma at a Prague hospital following a car accident near the Czech capital on 29 September.

Rosa Ajiri, 27, and Amir Zamani-Far, 29, were killed in the early morning when their car was hit by a truck. Mahin Gorji, 43, is in a coma and a fourth passenger, a visiting journalist, was treated and released from the hospital.

Despite their relative youth, Rosa and Amir were widely respected for their courageous and resourceful journalism.

29 September - Czech Republic - Amir Zamani-Far

RFE/RL's Persian-language Service, Radio Farda, is mourning the tragic loss of two of its finest journalists and praying for a third who is in a coma at a Prague hospital following a car accident near the Czech capital on 29 September.

Rosa Ajiri, 27, and Amir Zamani-Far, 29, were killed in the early morning when their car was hit by a truck. Mahin Gorji, 43, is in a coma and a fourth passenger, a visiting journalist, was treated and released from the hospital.

Despite their relative youth, Rosa and Amir were widely respected for their courageous and resourceful journalism.

One of the last reports Amir filed was on the fate of jailed journalists in Tehran.

30 September - Indonesia - Rajo Johan

The magnitude-7.6 earthquake which hit West Sumatra province on 30 September has also killed two journalists in Padang city.
Rajo Johan, Managing Director of Publik A.A., died when a landslide struck and buried him at Lubuk Paraku area, Padang city, when he was crossing a street.

30 September - Indonesia - Harfianto Gani

The magnitude-7.6 earthquake which hit West Sumatra province on 30 September has also killed two journalists in Padang city.
Harfianto Gani (27), the Post Metro journalist, died at Siti Rahma hospital, after a truck struck him in a main road of the city.

OCTOBER

6 October - Germany - Olivier Fachard

A French machinery journalist has died following an accident at a Fendt press launch held in Marktoberdorf, Germany, on Tuesday (6 October).
Olivier Fachard, a freelance journalist who was working for French agricultural publication Le Betteravier Francais as well as a contractor magazine, was taken to hospital following an incident which involved an overturned tractor.
Mr Fachard died shortly after arrival at hospital.

11 October - Mexico - Fabian Ramirez Lopez

The body of radio presenter Fabian Ramirez Lopez who worked for regional radio La Magia 97.1 was found dead close to Mazatlan, Sinaloa, north-western Mexico, 48 hours after he went missing after leaving his home to go to work.
The victim was found with his throat cut after an anonymous call was made to the radio station on the evening of 11 October. He also had injuries to his arms and the letters YTTS had been carved onto his back with a blunt instrument, the local press reported.
It was also reported that his mobile phone and his papers were found on the body, appearing to rule out theft as a motive. Ramirez had worked for La Magia 97.1 for five years before he disappeared without trace after leaving for work on 9 October.

21 October - Iraq - Orhan Hijran

An Iraqi cameraman was killed and another journalist was wounded on Wednesday by a roadside bomb in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, police said.
"Orhan Hijran, a cameraman for the Al-Rasheed television channel, was killed and Mohammed Abdallah Zadeh, with the Al-Baghdadia channel, was wounded at around 3:00 pm (1200 GMT) by a roadside bomb in Kirkuk," police colonel Adnan Abdallah said.
Both journalists were Turkmen Shiites. Police do not yet know whether the pair were the intended targets.

 

NOVEMBER

2 November - Mexico - Bladimir Antuna Garcia

A journalist specializing in police matters was kidnapped and killed execution-style in Durango state in northern Mexico, the most dangerous Latin American country for the press, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Bladimir Antuna Garcia, a reporter for the police section of El Tiempo de Durango newspaper, "was found dead minutes before 9:00 pm on Monday" (0300 GMT Tuesday), the Durango attorney general's office said in a statement.
Garcia had been kidnapped by an armed group early Monday on his way to work in Durango city, the state capital.
According to preliminary reports, the cause of death was "asphyxia by strangulation," but his body also showed bullet wounds in the head and the abdomen. Next to the body, found thanks to an anonymous phone call, was a message whose content was not disclosed by prosecutors.

4 November - kyrgyzstan - Seyitbek Murataliyev

Seyitbek Murataliyev, the editor of the independent weekly Zhylan, has died after a savage attack in which he was stabbed more than a dozen times.

His body was found by police in a communal area of his apartment building in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. According to the police, Forensic scientists have counted 13 stab wounds on the body of Seyitbek Murataliyev.

Zhylan newspaper frequently criticized the government of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, writing primarily about police corruption and the country's powerful but secretive security services.

16 NOVEMBER - RUSSIA - OLGA KOTOVSKAYA

Kaliningrad-based broadcast journalist Olga Kotovskaya fell to her death from a 14th-floor window. Authorities called it a suicide, but Kotovskaya's friends and colleagues believe she was murdered in connection with her work.

23 November - Philippines- francisco "Ian" Subang

23 November - Philippines- Lea Dalmacio

23 November - Philippines- Gina Dela Cruz

23 November - Philippines- Rosell Morales

23 November - Philippines- Henry Araneta

23 November - Philippines - Marife "Neneng" Montaño

23 November - Philippines - Alejandro “Bong" Reblando

23 November - Philippines - Victor Nuñez

23 November - Philippines - Mark Gilbert “Mac-Mac" Arriola

23 November - Philippines - hannibal Cachuela

23 November - Philippines - Ernesto “Bart" Maravilla

23 November - Philippines - Ronnie Perante

23 November - Philippines - Joel Parcon

23 November - Philippines - bienvenido Jr Legarte

23 November - Philippines - Rey Merisco

23 November - Philippines - John Caniban

23 November - Philippines - Arturo Betia

23 November - Philippines - Noel Decina

23 November - Philippines - fernando "Ranny" Razon

23 November - Philippines - Jhoy Duhay

23 November - Philippines - Andres "andy" Teodoro

23 November - Philippines - romeo Jimmy Cabillo

23 November - Philippines - Reynaldo “Bebot" Momay

23 November - Philippines - Napoleon Salaysay

23 November - Philippines - SANTOS Gatchalian

23 November - Philippines - Lindo Lupogan

23 November - Philippines - Adolfo Benjie

23 November - Philippines - Rubello Bataluna

23 November - Philippines - Marites Cablitas

23 November - Philippines - evardo jolito

23 November - Philippines - Daniel Tiamson

23 November - Philippines - Jepon Cadagdagon

A convoy of politicians, lawyers and news media was ambushed by gunmen on the way to an election office in the lawless southern Philippines province of Maguindanao. Fifty-seven people, including at least 32 journalists and other news media staff, were shot and hacked to death and most of them buried in shallow graves on a hillside off the hihway. It was the bloodiest single attack on the news media on record anywhere in the world.

24 NOVEMBER - MEXICO - JOSE EMILIO GALINDO ROBLES

José Emilio Galindo Robles, 43, director of Radio Universidad de Guadalajara in Ciudad Guzmá, Mexico, was found beaten to death in his home on 24 November. Specialising in environmental issues, he won the National Prize for Environmental Journalism in 2004. He came second in the Latin American Radio Biennial for his investigation of toxic waste discharged by businesses into the country’s most polluted river, the Santiago. Robles was found gagged and tied to his bed. The cause of death was said to be a fractured cranium.
 

DECEMBER

03 December - Somalia - Mohamed Amin Adan Abdulle

03 December - Somalia - Hassan Zubeyr Haji Hassan

03 December - Somalia - Yaasir Mario

Radio Shabelle reporter Mohamed Amin Adan Abdulle, 24, and Al-Arabia TV cameraman Hassan Zubeyr Haji Hassan were killed in the bombing of the Shamo Hotel located in a district known as “Kilometre 5” on one of Mogadishu’s main avenues.

A third journalist, Yaasir Mario, was critically injured and later died in the Medina hospital according to his family. Yaasir had been operating in the recent three months as a fixer and a cameraman. At the time of his death he was no attached to any specific media house.

The explosion occurred during a ceremony at which Banadir University students were being awarded graduation diplomas. The suicide bomb killed more than a dozen people including also three government ministers and nine students. 

No group has so far claimed the bombing but the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab is widely suspected. A hotel employee said one of the students participating in the ceremony detonated an explosive vest that he was wearing.

12 december - NEPAL - Nischal Thapa

Nischal Thapa,27, news editor at Ganatantra FM in Dharan, was killed in a motorcycle accident at Betuwa road section along the Mechi highway in Belbari. He died on the way to the hospital. Nischal and his colleague were involved in an accident after capturing live coverage of the UCPN (Maoist) Limbuwan, Kochila autonomous states declaration progrrame. Their motorcycle collided with a bus heading from the opposite direction.

14 DECEMBER - BRAZIL- JOSE GIVONALDO VIEIRA

Brazilian radio director, producer and newspaper owner Jose Givonaldo Vieira was killed by unidentified gunmen on 14 December in Bezerros, in northeastern Pernambuco state, in what appeared to be an execution-style murder. Vieira owned the newspaper Folha do Agreste and hosted a cultural program on Rádio Bezerros FM, a station operated by the paper. He reported regularly on corruption and had told friends days before that he had received death threats and was thinking of moving out of the state. Three men intercepted Vieira’s car as he arrived for work at the radio station. One approached Vieira and when the journalist rolled down his window to offer assistance, he was shot in the chest and neck. Police suspect the broadcaster was targeted by hired assassins.

15 December - Colombia - Harold Humberto Rivas Quevedo

Harold Humberto Rivas Quevedo, a broadcast journalist, was killed in the southwestern Colombian city of Buga just minutes after concluding a television program he hosted on CNC television. Rivas Quevedo, 48, was accosted by a man whose face was concealed by the shield of a motorcycle helmet.  The assailant walked into the Santa Cruz funeral home and fired five shots at the journalist from a 9 mm pistol before boarding a motorcycle and fleeing the scene.
Rivas Quevedo’s “Comuna L” program featured officeholders and community leaders in discussions about the concerns of Buga residents. He never reported having received any threats, according to a colleague. Rivas Quevedo leaves behind a wife and three children.

18 December - TURKEY - Cihan Hayirsevener

The chief editor of a local newspaper in the northwestern Turkish city of Bandirma has been murdered after death threats were made against him over his coverage of a corruption scandal. The 53-year-old editor-in-chief of the daily Life in Southern Marmara, Cihan Hayirsevener, was walking to his office on 18 December when he was shot in the leg three times by an unidentified assailant who fled in a car, the Anatolia news agency reported. One of the bullets ruptured an artery and doctors were unable to save his life.

19 December - Mexico - Alberto Velazquez Lopez

Alberto Velazquez Lopez, 42, was killed by two men who drove alongside his moving car and shot him at close range. The journalist, from the east Mexican town of Tulum, worked for local newspaper Expresiones de Tulum, which has been the target of threats before. The newspaper's offices were attacked with homemade bombs in November.

Velazquez Lopez died as he was being transferred to hospital nearby Cancun.

22 December - Kazakhstan - Gennady Pavlyuk

Gennady Pavlyuk, 40, a prominent opposition journalist from Kyrgyzstan was found in Almaty with multiple injuries, including broken ribs, after falling from the sixth floor of the apartment. His hands and feet were tied with duct tape.

Pavlyuk died after being admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital in Almaty

Pavlyuk, who wrote under the pen name Ibragim Rustambek, was in Kazakhstan on a work trip.

30 December - Afghanistan - Michelle Lang

Michelle Lang, a 34-year-old reporter with the Calgary Herald, was killed by a roadside bomb while embedded with Canadian troops around Kandahar city. Lang was travelling in an armoured vehicle with a provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar when she was killed.

The attack took place near Dand district. The soldiers' vehicle was apparently travelling on an unpaved road near the farming village of Qassam Pol, about four kilometres south of Kandahar city when the blast occurred around 4 p.m.

Michelle Lang is the first Canadian journalist killed while participating in the military's media embedding program in the country. Ms. Lang had been in Afghanistan for just over two weeks. She was an award-winning health reporter.  It was her first assignment to Afghanistan.

30 DECEMBER - INDIA - AMAN KASHYAP

A freelance photojournalist was run over by a train while taking pictures of early morning fog in Ghaziabad Wednesday, police said. Aman Kashyap, a resident of Vasundhara, was killed near Anand Vihar railway station. “He was there to take photos of fog delaying trains in the winter season,” said Ashok Sharma, a Ghaziabad based photojournalist.