Introduction
In 1998 unpunished crimes were placed on the international agenda. Nowadays, in certain countries, it seems to be accepted that if you kill a journalist you won’t get caught.
Sometimes killings are not regarded as a priority and low grade officers are assigned to the investigations, in other instances vested interests ensure that investigations are slow and inefficient. Whatever the reason, there is a lack of commitment to prosecuting those responsible.
When a journalist is killed it is an attack against the entire population, not simply an individual. Whoever can silence the journalist can silence everyone. Unless the authorities make the investigations of these killings a priority, there is little hope for the protection of basic human rights, not just of journalists but of all.
The IFJ lists journalists killed while working or because of their work. We make no distinction between a correspondent caught in the crossfire while covering a war and the violent death of other journalists killed as a result of their work.
In some cases, especially in Latin America and the countries of the former Soviet Union, it is difficult to find the specific motive for the killing. However, background research ensures that those included in the list of journalists and mediaworkers killed are definitely or highly likely to have been killed as a result of their journalism.
Where there are doubts as to whether a journalist was killed for his work, but that remains a serious possibility, we list the case as Under Investigation.
In 1998 31 journalists were killed. Nineteen other cases are listed as under investigation. These killings are only the tip of an iceberg of physical assaults, disappearances and jailings which affect journalists every year.
There is no doubt that more must be done to protect journalists and mediaworkers, and it is time that governments took responsibility for the role they play in allowing these killings to happen.
Country by Country Analysis
(JK=Journalists killed)
(UI/M = Under investigation)
COUNTRY NUMBERS TYPE
Afghanistan 1 (JK)
Angola 1 (UI)
Bangladesh 1 (JK)
Brazil 3 (JK)
Burkina Faso 1 (JK)
Colombia 3 (JK)
Colombia 7 (UI)
Congo Brazaville 1 (JK)
Ethiopia 1 (JK)
Ethiopia 1 (UI)
FRY - Kosovo 1 (JK)
Georgia 1 (JK)
Guatemala 1 (JK)
Iran 2 (JK)
Iran 1 (UI)
Mexico 3 (JK)
Mexico 3 (UI)
Nigeria 2 (JK)
Pakistan 1 (UI)
Peru 2 (JK)
Philippines 1 (JK)
Philippines 1 (UI)
Russia 4 (JK)
Russia 1 (UI)
Rwanda 1 (UI)
Sierra Leone 1 (JK)
Tajikistan 1 (JK)
Tajikistan 1 (UI)
Thailand 1 (JK)
Figures as at 22 December 1998
TOTAL JOURNALISTS KILLED UNDER INVESTIGAION
31 19
IFJ Killed List 1998
This list was prepared by the International Federation of Journalists and the International Press Institute.
The list contains the total number of killed journalists as known to the IFJ and IPI. However, the number of journalists counted is subject to alteration as a result of ongoing research and investigation.
Further information can be obtained from:
International Federation of Journalists
266 Rue Royal
1210 Brussels
Belgium
Phone: +32 2 223 22 65 - Fax: +32 2 219 29 76
E-mail: ifj@pophost.eunet.be
Cases of Journalists Killed
Country: AFGHANISTAN
CASENR: 1
Name: Mahmoud Saremi
Nationality: Iranian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Islamic Republic News Agency
Sector: Wire
Date: August/September 1998
Age:
Source: IFJ, IPI, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Mr Mahmoud Saremi, Afghanistan bureau chief of the Iranian news agency Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), was abducted by members of the Taliban militia when in Mazar-i-Sharif on 8 August. Mr Saremi was abducted together with 10 Iranian diplomats.
On 11 September, the Taliban movement announced that the 10 Iranian diplomats and one journalist, were killed by Taliban fighters, "acting on their own".
Country: BANGLADESH
CASENR:2
Name: Saiful Alam Mukul
Nationality: Bangladeshi
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: Daily Runner
Sector: Press
Date: 31 August 1998
Age:
Source: Media Watch, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Saiful Alam Mukul, editor of the Daily Runner, was killed by gunmen in Jessore, a town in the south eastern district of Bangladesh. Mr Mukul was travelling home by rickshaw, to Bejpara district, when it was sprayed with bullets. Immediately after the incident, he was rushed to the Jessore General Hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.
Additional: The Daily Runner – which regularly featured articles exposing gang activity, political corruption, and human rights abuses - had published stories critical of guerrilla activity in the area around Jessore.
The Daily Runner had been out of print since June 25, when Mukul halted production in protest against the growing complacency toward crime and corruption in Bangladesh, but it was scheduled to resume publication on 1 September. The Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, Jessore Union of Journalists, and Jessore Press Club all condemned the murder, suspecting that the attack was designed to silence Mukul and crush his paper.
Country: BRAZIL
CASENR: 3
Name: Manuel Leal de Oliveira
Nationality: Brazilian
Profession: Publisher and Editor
Newsorgan: A Região
Sector: Press
Date: 15 January 1998
Age:
Source: FENAJ, SJB, CPJ, IFEX
Description: On 15 January 1998, two unidentified men fatally shot Manuel Leal de Oliveira, publisher and editor of A Região, the largest weekly in southern Bahia State. At 7:50 p.m., three men in a white van began following Leal's car as he was driving home in the town of Itabuna. When Leal got out of his car, two men stepped out of the van and fired six bullets at Leal. The driver turned the van around, picked up the other two men, and sped off.
Additional: Lal was known for his critical reporting on local authorities. In his coverage, he frequently denounced Fernando Gomes, the mayor of Itabuna, and Gilson Prata, a Civil Police marshal in the Bahia State capital of Salvador. His death is being investigated by State police.
Country: BRAZIL
CASENR: 4
Name: Jose Carlos Mesquita
Nationality: Brazilian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Ouro Verde
Sector: TV
Date: 10 March 1998
Age:
Source: FENAJ, SJR, CPJ, IFEX
Description: On 10 March 1998, three unidentified individuals shot and killed Jose Carlos Mesquita in the town of Ouro Preto do Oeste. He was killed by three shots to the head. Mesquita, host of a news program with the television station Ouro Verde in Rondonia State - which borders Colombia and Bolivia -, had just finished recording Espaco Aberto, a programme that featured politically-sensitive topics, such as the safety of public transportation.
Additional: Local journalists believe he was killed by order of local officials. His killing is being investigated by Federal Police.
Country: BRAZIL
CASENR: 5
Name: Miguel Pereira De Melo
Nationality: Brazilian
Profession: Photographer
Newsorgan: Correio Do Tocantins
Sector: Press
Date: 6 November 1998
Age: 45
Source: FENAJ, SJP
Description: Miguel Pereira De Melo 45, a Brazilian photographer who worked for Correio Do Tocantins, died in hospital, a day after being shot in the thorax by a gunman in the remote Amazon state of Para. His photographs of the bodies of 19 farm labourers killed when police fired on a crowd of landless peasants demonstrating at Eldorado de Carajas, in Para state, in April 1996, were published around the world. His were the only photographs of the massacre. The murder happened at 9pm when he was walking through the streets of Maraba, in the neighbourhood of Liberdade. The killer arrived on a bicycle, shot him and then cycled away. He died at 2am on the morning of 6 November. Additional: He was due to testify on 23 November at a court investigation into one of Brazil’s most notorious massacres, in which 144 soldiers of the Para state military police are accused of involvement. On 4 November the public prosecutor had sent an official summons to de Melo. He was shot on 5 November. The State police are treating the matter as a common criminal killing.
Country: BURKINA FASO
CASENR:
Name: Norbert Zongo
Nationality: Burkinabe
Profession: Editor in Chief
Newsorgan: L’indépendant
Sector: Press
Date: 13 December 1998
Age:
Source: IFJ, AJB
Description: Norbert Zongo’s body was found in his car, on 13 December, together with the bodies of his brother, his chauffeur and one other person. Only the inside of the car was burnt and the body of the car was pierced by several holes which are believed to have been caused by bullets.
Zongo was editor in chief of the private weekly L'indépendant, and had recently published articles critical of the authorities and accusing the head of state’s brother of being in part responsible for the death of his chauffeur.
Zongo was a leading independent journalist in Burkina and was actively involved in the Burkina Press Centre in Ouagadougou. He was President of the Association of Independent Newspapers (SEP).
Tens of thousands attended his funeral, which was held on 16 December, and eulogies were given by various organisations including the Association des Journalistes du Burkina (AJB), the Société de Editeurs de la Presse privéé (SEP), the Syndicat autonome des Travailleurs de l’Information et de la Culture (SYNATIC) and the Mouvement Burkinabé Des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples.
Country: CANADA
CASENR:
Name: Tara Singh Hayer
Nationality: Canadian
Profession: Editor, publisher
Newsorgan: Indo-Canadian Times
Sector: Press
Date: 18 November 1998
Age: 64
Source: CJFE, IFEX
Description: Tara Singh Hayer was shot to death in the garage of his suburban Vancouver home on the evening of 18 November 1998. According to Hayer's son, Sukhdev Hayer, his father had arrived moments earlier at his Surrey, British Columbia home from his newspaper office, and had just transferred from his vehicle to his wheelchair when he was shot.
Additional: Hayer, who published the Indo-Canadian Times, Canada's largest and oldest Punjabi weekly, was an outspoken critic of violent Sikh fundamentalists and had already been the target of an assassination attempt at his newspaper office in 1988. At the time, he was left partially paralysed. Just a week before the attack, the publisher said in an interview that he was not concerned by ongoing threats on his life. "If they get me, they get me. There's nothing I can do and I'm not going to stop my work," he said.
Sukhdev Hayer believes the killer was trying to frighten people prior to upcoming Sikh temple elections in Vancouver and Abbotsford because they feared moderates would win. Sikh moderates and friends of Hayer said police have done little to head off the threats and violence of fundamentalists in the region.
Hayer, was married with three daughters, one son and eighteen grandchildren.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 8
Name: Oscar Garcia Calderon
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: El Espectador
Sector: Press
Date: 22 February 1998
Age:
Source: CCRG, FIP, CPJ, IPI, IFEX
Description: Oscar Garcia Calderon, journalist with the newspaper El Espectador, was killed on 22 February 1998. Garcia, who covered bullfights for the Bogota daily for more than two decades, had left the El Espectador offices at 7:30 p.m. after reporting on that day's bullfight. Colleagues who remained at the offices received a phone call from the office of the Attorney General later that evening, informing them that Garcia had been killed at 8 p.m. by three gunshots: two to the head and one to the neck. Garcia was killed close to the Attorney General's offices, in the residential neighborhood of Ciudad Salitre.
Additional: Although the assailants did take Garcia's wallet, they did not take his watch or his gold ring, making robbery an unlikely motive. Garcia was conducting investigations into the links between bullfighting and organized crime. Garcia is survived by his wife and one daughter.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 9
Name: Nelson Carvajal Carvajal
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Teacher and journalist
Newsorgan: Radio Sur
Sector: Radio
Date: 16 April 1998
Age:
Source: CCRG, FIP, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Nelson Carvajal, a teacher and journalist with Radio Sur, was shot and killed in Pitalito (District of Huila, southwest of Bogota) on 16 April 1998. Carvajal was shot by a young man who was waiting for him at the exit of the elementary school in the Los Pinos area, where the journalist taught. The gunman escaped on a motorcycle.
Additional: Carvajal was the producer of five community programs on Radio Sur. In addition to programming on topics ranging from health services to rural development, Carvajal provided investigative reporting about alleged government corruption. It is believed the murder is connected to allegations of corruption, made on his radio shows, implicating members of the former municipal administration.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 10
Name: Bernabe Cortes Valderrama
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Telepacifico
Sector: Televisions
Date: 19 May 1998
Age: 41
Source: CCRG, FIP, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Bernabe Cortes was murdered on the morning of 19 May 1998, by several gunmen in Cali. Cortes was a reporter with the nightly news programme Noticias CVN, broadcast on the Telepacifico network. He reported frequently on such sensitive topics as drug trafficking, corruption, and recent negotiations between the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and authorities over soldiers held by the Colombian guerrillas. Several men opened fire on Cortes as he was riding in a taxi near his office, killing both the journalist and the taxi driver. The assailants fled in a Mazda automobile and later changed to another car.
Additional: Cortes was killed while on his way to an appointment with an individual who had paged him earlier in the morning with "important news." Cortes is survived by his wife and two children.
Country: CONGO BRAZAVILLE
CASENR: 11
Name: Fabien Fortune Bitoumbo
Nationality: Congolese
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Radio Liberté
Sector: Radio
Date: 29 August 1998
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX
Description: Fabien Fortune Bitoumbo, a journalist with the privately-owned radio station Radio Liberté and former editor-in-chief of the privately-owned newspaper La Rue Meurt, was gunned down at point-blank range by the militia group of Bernard Kolela. Bitoumbo was on assignment accompanying Michel Mampouya, Minister of Mining and Industry, on a trip to Mindouli (150 kilometres from Brazzaville), which is under the control of the militia group, known as the Ninjas. The journalist was taken hostage along with his companions before being killed.
Country: ETHIOPIA
CASENR: 12
Name: Abaye Hailu
Nationality: Ethiopian
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: Wolafen
Sector: Press
Date: 12 February 1998
Age:
Source: IFJ
Description: Abaye Hailu, Editor in Chief of Wolafen, died in custody on 12 February 1998. He was incarcerated on February 22 1996 for articles relating to the threat of ‘Islamic Fundamentalism’. He was in prison for 2 years because he could not meet the terms of his bail. He had a lung problem and was only moved to the prison hospital after his condition had deteriorated. He was released from the hospital after two months, and before he was better. After a few weeks he was admitted to Menilik Hospital where he died 5 days later.
Country: FRY-KOSOVO
CASENR: 13
Name: Afrim Maliqi
Nationality: Kosovar
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Bujku,
Sector: Press
Date: 2 December 1998
Age: 31
Source: Albanian Journalists
Description: Afrim Maliqi, the Prishtina journalist for Bujku was killed in an ambush on his car around 5pm in the centre of Prishtina on 2 December. The assailants who were masked, shot at the car and killed all three passengers.
Additional: Maliqi had told colleagues that he feared for his life because he believed he was being followed. Journalists believe he was killed for his journalistic activity. He had been a journalist for seven years. He wrote a cultural column which criticised Serbian policy towards the Albanian language community. Bujku is one of several Albanian language daily newspapers which have been threatened with closure by the Serb authorities. Police stopped journalists entering the building on the weekend of 19 December and the paper has been unable to be published since.
Country: GEORGIA
CASENR: 14
Name: Georgy Chanya
Nationality: Georgian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Rezonants
Sector: Press
Date: 27 May 1998
Age: 25
Source: CPJ, IFEX
Description: Georgy Chanya, a reporter for the independent Georgian daily Rezonants, was killed on 27 May 1998 while covering renewed fighting between Abkhaz rebels and Georgian guerrillas near Gali in the separatist region of Abkhazia. According to Amiran Dzotsenidze, deputy editor of Rezonants, Chanya and two other Georgian journalists crossed into Abkhazia on 20 May to cover reports of ethnic cleansing of Georgians by Abkhaz rebels. The two reporters travelling with him left Abkhazia as the violence escalated, but Chanya stayed behind, choosing to follow a band of Georgian guerrillas to file reports from the front-line. He was killed during a raid on the guerrillas’ camp. Chanya’s body was mutilated beyond recognition and identifiable only through personal documents found on his corpse, and photos produced by Abkhazian military personnel. Chanya’s body was returned to Georgia along with the bodies of ten fighters in return for the release of two jailed Abkhaz rebels held by Georgian police.
Additional: Chanya was an ethnic Georgian refugee who fled the Abkhaz region of Gali with his family at the height of the 1992-93 conflict, which has seen occasional flare-ups despite a 1994 cease-fire. He settled in the neighbouring Zugdidi region and worked as a special correspondent covering Abkhazia for the independent Rezonants.
Country: IRAN
CASENR: 15
Name: Mohammad Mokhtari
Nationality: Iranian
Profession: Writer and journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector: Press
Date: 3/9 December 1998
Age:
Source: WipC, NVJ, IFEX
Description: Mohammad Mokhtari, a poet and one of six writers questioned in connection with a recent initiative to form a writers' association called "Kanoun", was found dead on December 9, after having being missing for 6 days. Marks on his head and neck suggested he may have been strangled. Mokhtari contributed to various newspapers.
Additional: Mokhtari was one of three independent writers to disappear and be found dead in a period of two weeks.
Country: IRAN
CASENR: 16
Name: Mohammad Ja'frah Pouyandeh
Nationality: Iranian
Profession: Writer, essayist, translator and journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector: Press
Date: 9/11 December 1998
Age:
Source: WiPC, NVJ, IFEX
Description: Mohammad Ja'frah Pouyandeh, an essayist and translator of French literature, was found dead on 11 December 1998 having been missing for two days. Pouyandeh disappeared while on his way from his office to a meeting on 9 December. According to reports, his body was found underneath a railway bridge in a suburb of Tehran having apparently been strangled. His family was not informed of the death until 13 December. Pouyandeh was one of six writers questioned in October in connection with a recent initiative to form a writers' association called "Kanoun".
Additional: Pouyandeh was one of three independent writers to disappear and be found dead in a period of two weeks.
Country: MEXICO
CASENR: 17
Name: Luis Mario Garcia
Nationality: Mexican
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: La Tarde
Sector: Press
Date: 12 February 1998
Age:
Source: SNRPTASC, FIP, RSF, IFEX
Description: On 13 February 1998, Luis Mario Garcia, a member of the editorial staff of La Tarde, was assassinated. Garcia, the newspaper's judicial correspondent, had been covering the activities of the country's Attorney General. As he was leaving the offices of the Attorney General, four persons armed with automatic weapons began to follow him. Investigators say that the assailants fired nine shots in Garcia's direction before fleeing the scene.
Additional: Garcia had written several articles focusing on police corruption. Several days earlier, Garcia, who lived in the state of Sonora (on the U.S. border), had been sent a death threat. In 1997, he escaped an attempt on his life.
Country: MEXICO
CASENR: 18
Name: Claudio Cortés García
Nationality: Mexican
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Le Monde Diplomatique
Sector: Press
Date: 23 October
Age:
Source: SNRPTASC, FIP, RSF, IFEX
Description: On 23 October, Claudio Cortés García, journalist with the Mexican edition of Le Monde Diplomatique was found dead in the back seat of a vehicle in Mexico City. He had disappeared on the night of 20 October. The journalist, who was the son of a former political prisoner, also worked for the Reforma and El Financiero dailies and for La Crísis magazine.
Country: MEXICO
CASENR: 19
Name: Pedro Valle Hernández
Nationality: Mexican
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Guerrero television
Sector: TV
Date: 29 October 1998
Age: 28
Source: SNRPTASC, FIP, Periodistas, IFEX
Description: Acapulco television reporter, Pedro Valle Hernández, was shot dead in the Mexican Pacific coast city of Zihuatanejo on 29 October. He was shot in the back of his neck while sitting in his car. He was a correspondent in Zihuatanejo for the state of Guerrero's television and radio network. Police said that the murder appears to be related to reports that the journalist had made. He had often been critical of Zihuatanejo officials, but his last report, broadcast posthumously on the day he was killed, exposed a local child prostitution ring.
Country: NIGERIA
CASENR: 20
Name: Tunde Oladepo
Nationality: Nigerian
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: Guardian
Sector: Press
Date: 27 February 1998
Age:
Source: IFJ, IJC, CPJ, IFEX, OMCT
Description: On 27 February 1998, unidentified armed men broke into the Ogun State home of Tunde Oladepo, senior editor of the Guardian newspaper, and shot him in front of his wife and children. The gunmen remained in Oladepo's home for two hours, finally leaving the premises with a television set and some clothing.
Additional: The circumstances of the death are regarded as suspicious because robbers usually leave the scene of the crime immediately. Various Nigerian sources have stated that he was killed because of his journalistic activity, in particular his reporting on local politics.
Country: NIGERIA
CASENR: 21
Name: Okezie Amaruben
Nationality: Nigerian
Profession: Journalist and publisher
Newsorgan: Newsservice
Sector: Press
Date: 28 August 1998
Age:
Source: IJC, IFEX
Description: Okezie Amaruben, journalist and publisher of an Enugu quarterly magazine, Newsservice, was shot through the skull by a policeman in the Enugu state police command. The incident occurred at about 13hours (GMT) when Amaruben had gone to check a job being done for him by a printer in Enugu. The publisher stumbled on to an armed policemen who had come to the printer’s workshop to arrest him (the printer). The police could not find the printer and decided to arrest his staff. They forced one of the staff, a young boy, into their station wagon car, which bore the inscription "Operation Vigilance 03". Mr. Amaruben then came into the place. The police immediately accosted Amaruben and claimed that he was the printer they came to arrest by order of their boss, following a complaint lodged against him by a woman for not processing her job. The police pounced on Amaruben without giving him a chance to identify himself. One of the policemen shoved the muzzle of his gun onto Amaruben's forehead and hit him on the head with the mouth of his pistol while shouting "move! move!" When they got to the vehicle, a policeman holding the butt of a gun hit Amaruben with it and shot a bullet through his head.
Additional: The policeman who shot Amaruben was arrested.
Country: PERU
CASENR: 22
Name: Isabel Chumpitaz Panta
Nationality: Peruvian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: La Voz del Pueblo
Sector: Radio
Date: 6 April 1998
Age:
Source: ANP, FIP
Description: Isabel Chumpitaz Panta and her husband, Jose Amaya Jacinto were killed by a group of armed individuals on Monday 6 April 1998. The journalist Walter Cumpitaz Panta and Carlos Chumpitaz, Ms Panta’s brother, were both seriously injured when they tried to defend her. Panta was a journalist on La Voz del Pueblo and her husband was an announcer. Walter Cumpitaz Panta is director of the news bulletin Sombrero de Paja on Radio Satelite. A witness heard the attackers accusing the mediaworkers of ‘educating the agricultural workers of the region’.
Additional: In a letter to the IFJ of 7 May, the Public Prosecutor of Peru stated that fourteen people had been arrested for the attacks on the journalists. Since these arrests there have been suggestions that police had knowledge of the plan to murder the two journalists, which is why there was no police presence at the only area through which the assassins could have escaped.
Country: PERU
CASENR: 23
Name: Jose Amaya Jacinto
Nationality: Peruvian
Profession: Announcer, journalist
Newsorgan: La Voz del Pueblo
Sector: Radio
Date: 6 April 1998
Age:
Source: ANP, FIP
Description: Isabel Chumpitaz Panta and her husband, Jose Amaya Jacinto were killed by a group of armed individuals on Monday 6 April 1998. The journalist Walter Cumpitaz Panta and Carlos Chumpitaz, Ms Panta’s brother, were both seriously injured when they tried to defend her. Panta was a journalist on La Voz del Pueblo and her husband was an announcer. Walter Cumpitaz Panta is director of the news bulletin Sombrero de Paja on Radio Satelite. A witness heard the attackers accusing the mediaworkers of ‘educating the agricultural workers of the region’.
Additional: In a letter to the IFJ of 7 May, the Public Prosecutor of Peru stated that fourteen people had been arrested for the attacks on the journalists. Since these arrests there have been suggestions that police had knowledge of the plan to murder the two journalists, which is why there was no police presence at the only area through which the assassins could have escaped.
Country: PHILIPPINES
CASENR: 24
Name: Reynaldo Bancayrin
Nationality: Philippino
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: DXLL
Sector: Radio
Date: 30 March 1998
Age:
Source: IPI, RSF, IFEX
Description: Reynaldo Bancayrin, anchorman for the DXLL radio station, was murdered on 30 March 1998 in the southern city of Zamboanga. The journalist was presenting his programme, Bale Todo, when two people knocked at the door of his booth. He allowed them in and one man shot him at point-blank range with a 45-caliber gun, while the other held back the broadcaster's colleagues. The two murderers escaped from the radio office and got away on a motorbike. The police said they were "looking into all angles, including the possibility that this may be the result of his commentaries against corruption in some government agencies."
Additional: Reynaldo Bancayrin was one of the most popular radio commentators in the region and he was conducting a crusade against official corruption, drug trafficking and illegal loggers. He was also a supporter of former Defense Secretary Renato de Villa's opposition party.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 25
Name: Ivan Fedyunin
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Bryanskie Izvestiya
Sector: Press
Date: 31 March 1998
Age:
Source: JUR
Description: At night on 31 March, Ivan Fedyunin, editor of the department of politics of the regional newspaper Bryanskie Izvestiya was killed in his appartment. His body, which was full of stab wounds, was found by police on 2 April. A few days before his death the journalist had received threatening phone calls. He had published some critical reports on the activities of a number of Bryansk companies.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 26
Name: Igor Lykov
Nationality: Russian
Profession: journalist, police officer
Newsorgan:
Sector: Press
Date: 2 May 1998
Age:
Source: JUR, GDF, IFEX
Description: On 2 May 1998, police major Igor Lykov was shot twice point-blank in his apartment in Saratov (southeast of Moscow). Lykov had repeatedly published articles in the local and Moscow press concerning corruption and unlawful actions in the law-enforcement bodies. He was regularly punished for publishing the articles, including having nine criminal suits brought against him and twice being dismissed from the police service. After a number of articles by Lykov on the methods of recruiting police officers were published in the local press, there was an attempt to accuse him of divulging State secrets.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 27
Name: Larisa Yudina
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Editor in Chief
Newsorgan: Sovetskaya Kalmykia Segodnya
Sector: Press
Date: 7 June 1998
Age:
Source: JUR, IPI, GDF, RSF, IFEX
Description: On 7 June, Larisa Yudina, editor-in-chief of the independent daily Sovetskaya Kalmykia Segodnya, was murdered in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia. Her body was found in a pond. She had been repeatedly stabbed and her skull was fractured. Her paper had uncovered corruption in the autocratic administration of Kalmykia’s President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. On 7 June, an unknown person claiming to be a representative of the Agency for Co-development, reporting to the President of Kalmykia, had made an appointment with the journalist. He was to give her documents on the misappropriation of funds, which implicated the President of the Republic, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
Additional: Yudina was also regional vice-president of the opposition party Yabloko. Her newspaper was in constant conflict with President Ilyumzhinov, who is also an influential businessman. Sovietskaya Kalmykia has published numerous articles criticising his authoritarianism and denouncing the corruption and misappropriation of funds under his presidency. For the past eighteen months, Yudina had also been enquiring into a company connected to President Ilyumzhinov, called Aris, which granted tax exemptions to firms setting up in an off-shore area of the republic. In her newspaper she claimed that the practice was accompanied by bribes paid by firms to the Kalmykian President. Sovietskaya Kalmykia, the only opposition newspaper in Kalmykia, has often been threatened with closure by the authorities. Since 1993, Yudina had also received numerous threats due to her articles on the wealth and personality of President Ilyumzhinov.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 28
Name: Anatoly Levin-Utkin
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Yuridichesky Peterburg Segodnya
Sector: Press
Date: 24 August 1998
Age:
Source: JUR, GDF, IFEX
Description: On 20 August 1998, at about 8:00 p.m. (local time), Anatoly Levin-Utkin, deputy editor-in-chief of Yuridichesky Peterburg Segodnya, was reportedly assaulted by two unknown assailants on the porch of his house in St. Petersburg. He was found unconscious, suffering from serious head trauma. The journalist's briefcase, containing material for the next paper's issue, as well as photo equipment and exposed film, were missing. On 24 August 1998, following neurosurgery, Levin-Utkin died from his injuries without having regained consciousness. According to neurosurgeon Sergei Yevdokimov, the nature of the journalist's injuries give reason to assert that he was murdered.
Additional: Yuridichesky Peterburg Segodnya had previously published a series of articles on corruption in St. Petersburg's banking circles. Apparently, the banking leadership, the topic of articles to have been published in the next issue, demanded that the newspaper name its sources for the articles. On a different occasion, the vehicle carrying the previous issue of the newspaper had been detained by police, allegedly under false pretences.
Country: SIERRA LEONE
CASENR: 29
Name: Edward Smith
Nationality: Sierra Leonian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: BBC
Sector: Radio
Date: 13 April 1998
Age:
Source: CPJ, WAJA, IFEX
Description: Edward Smith, a reporter with the British Broadcasting Service (BBC), was killed in an ambush in the village of Banbanduhun during the afternoon of 13 April 1998. Smith, who covered the north eastern region (Makeni and Kono districts) of Sierra Leone for the BBC since the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) took power in May 1997, was travelling with West African peacekeeping (ECOMOG) soldiers in the Kono district when their vehicles were ambushed by junta forces. Smith was a well-respected career journalist who had previously worked as a reporter for Sierra Leone's independent Vision newspaper and as an editor of The Storm newspaper for approximately five years. An ECOMOG soldier was also killed in the ambush.
Country: TAJIKISTAN
CASENR: 30
Name: Meirkhaim Gavrielov
Nationality: Tajik
Profession: Editor in Chief
Newsorgan: Donish
Sector: Press
Date: 8 June 1998
Age: 70
Source: IFJ, MFDJA, GDF
Description: On 8 June 1998, around 9 pm local time, unknown individuals burst into the home of journalist Meirkhaim Gavrielov, beating and then strangling him with an iron wire. Gavrielov was a noted journalist who had worked for the Tajik media for more than fifty years. At the time of his murder, he was editor-in-chief of the Tajik Agrarian University newspaper Donish, a position he had held since 1979. He was also the author of several books and a member of the Bukharian (Central Asian) Jewish Section of the Writers Union of Tajikistan.
Country: THAILAND
CASENR: 31
Name: Sayomchai Vijitwittayapong
Nationality: Thai
Profession: Journalist (Stringer)
News organ: Matichon, Khao-sod and Thai Post
Sector: Press
Date: 10 January 1998
Age: 40
Source: RAT
Description: Sayomchai Vijitwittayapong, who was a stringer for several daily newspapers, including Matichon, Khao-sod and Thai Post was found shot dead in his car in Phichit Province (in central Thailand). According to the publishers of Matichon, the journalist had agreed to meet with a person after receiving a "mysterious phone call" the day before his murder. On an earlier occasion, Vijitwittayapong had turned down an offer of a bribe of 150,000 Bath (approx. US$ 4,200) to stop investigations into allegations of corruption related to a building of small irrigation dam project.
Additional: The Reporters' Association of Thailand issued a statement condemning the murder calling on the Police Department to handle this case carefully as this murder presents a threat to all journalists. Total: 31 Cases Under Investigation
Country: ANGOLA
CASENR: 1
Name: Simao Roberto
Nationality: Angolan
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Jornal de Angola
Sector: Press
Date: 5 June 1998
Age: 42
Source: MISA, NSHR, Channel Africa, IFEX
Description: Simao Roberto, a journalist for the government-owned Jornal de Angola, was gunned down in Luanda on 5 June 1998. Roberto was returning from the State House, where he had covered a meeting of the council of ministers, when he was killed.
Additional: The motive for the killing is unclear and his murder may be unrelated to his journalistic activities.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 2
Name: Didier Aristizabal Galeano
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist and professor of journalism
Newsorgan: Todelar
Sector: Radio
Date: 2 March
Age: 32
Source: CCRG, FIP, IPI, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Didier Aristizabal, a well-known reporter for Todelar and other local radio stations, was gunned down by unidentified assailants on 2 March 1998, as he left the Santiago de Cali University where he taught. He was followed by two men riding a Yamaha motorcycle after leaving the University and when Aristizabal stopped for a traffic light the two men on the motorcycle shot him nine times and fled the scene. A taxi driver took Aristizabal to the Academic Hospital of Cali, where he was pronounced dead.
Additional: Aristizabal worked as a political reporter for radio station Todelar in Cali until 1994 before joining the faculty of Santiago University as a journalism professor. In 1996, he took a position as chief press officer for the Cali Fair, a bullfighting tournament. At the end of 1997, he helped the National Police in Cali set up a radio news station.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 3
Name: Jose Abel Salazar Serna
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Todelar
Sector: Radio
Date: 14 March
Age:
Source: CCRG, FIP, CPJ, IFEX
Description: On March 14, radio journalist Jose Abel Salazar Serna was found dead in his apartment in the central Colombian town of Manizales, the capital of Caldas Department. Salazar, the host of a radio programme called Youth in Action on the Todelar station, had been stabbed 15 times.
Additional: Salazar had broadcast appeals for peace and co-existence.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 4
Name: Amparo Leonor Jiménez Pallares
Nationality:
Profession: Journalist, human rights worker
Newsorgan: En Vivo, Redepaz
Sector: TV, Radio
Date: 11 August 1998
Age:
Source: CCRG, FIP, IPI, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Amparo Leonor Jiménez Pallares, was shot in the head three times by a man who later fled in a vehicle driven by an accomplice. She was a correspondent for the television news program En Vivo in Valledupar, in north-east Colombia, and also worked for the non-governmental organisation Redepaz (Network of Initiatives for Peace and against War). She had just taken her eleven-year old son to school. Authorities announced that Jiménez had received death threats by telephone shortly before she was killed. She had stopped working as a journalist about two and a half months before she was killed.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 5
Name: Nelson Osorio Patiño
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist, Owner
Newsorgan: Señal Colombia, RCN, El Tiempo, Revista 7
Sector: TV, Radio, Press
Date: 27 August 1998
Age:
Source: CCRG, FIP, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Nelson Osorio Patiño was killed on the morning of 27 August 1998 as he waited for a car repair shop to open near Avenida Boyuca in western Bogotá. A man walked up to Osorio and shot him twice in the head and twice in the shoulder, then fled on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice.
Additional: Osorio was a sports reporter and producer with the Gran Prix sports programme, broadcast on Señal Colombia. He was also the owner of a regional sports newspaper in Florence, Caquetá, and owner of a local news show, Revista 7. He previously worked as a regional correspondent for the Bogotá daily El Tiempo and RCN radio.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 6
Name: Nestor Villar Jimenez
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date: September 11
Age: 40
Source: CCRG, FIP, IPI, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Nestor Villar Jimenez, a prominent journalist and former congressman, was killed by gunmen in Villavicencio, capital of Meta province. It was not immediately clear if his murder was politically motivated, but his brother was killed under similar circumstances two years ago.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 7
Name: Saúl Alcaraz
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Spokesperson
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date: 14 October 1998
Age:
Source: CPJ, IFEX, FIP
Description: Saúl Alcaraz was the spokesperson for an environmental group in Medellín called Instituto Mi Río. He was shot on 14 October. Alcaraz was a former correspondent for Teleantoquia Noticias Fin de Semana, but hadn't worked in journalism in four years.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 8
Name: Jose Arturo Guapacha
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Director
Newsorgan: El Panorama de Cartago
Sector: Press
Date: 15 October
Age:
Source: CCRG, FIP, IPI, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Jose Arturo Guapacha, director of the weekly El Panorama de Cartago, was fatally shot in the head by a gunman waiting for him near a garage exit. Guapacha had worked for radio stations and had been director of Panorama for 10 years.
Country: ETHIOPIA
CASENR: 9
Name: Tesfaye Tadesse
Nationality: Ethiopian
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: Mestawet, Lubar
Sector: Press
Date: 7 June 1998
Age:
Source: IFJ, CPJ, IFEX
Description: On 7 June 1998, at approximately 8.30 pm, Tesfaye Tadesse, the owner and editor of the magazine Mestawet and the newspaper Lubar (both presently out of circulation), was murdered in front of his residence. He was stabbed and hacked to death by two unidentified individuals using a knife and a machete. The attackers escaped the scene of the crime in a DX Toyota.
Additional: Tesfaye, a lawyer by training, was also an activist and a member of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO). He was previously under Meles Zenawi's Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) when Gebre Igziabher, a member of the leadership committee of the opposition Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party (EPRP), was murdered in Addis Ababa in mid 1993.
Country: GUATEMALA
CASENR: 10
Name: Antonio Castillo Gálvez
Nationality: Guatemalan
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Avances
Sector: TV
Date: 24 June 1998
Age:
Source: APG, FIP, IFEX
Description: Antonio Castillo Gálvez, an editor with the state-owned television news Avances, was killed by unknown individuals on 24 June. According to investigations made by authorities, the incident occurred at 10 am in Guatemala City. As Castillo was leaving his residence, his killers, without saying anything, shot the journalist twice and, to ensure that he was dead, shot him a third time.
Additional: It is unclear whether Gálvez was killed for his journalistic activities.
Country: IRAN
CASENR: 11
Name: Majid Sharif
Nationality: Iranian
Profession: Writer, jouranlist
Newsorgan: Iran Farda
Sector:
Date: 20/24 November 1998
Age: +/- 45
Source: WiPC, IFEX
Description: Majid Sharif left his home on 20 November 1998 and his family lost sight of his whereabouts. On 24 November they were summoned to identify his body in a morgue in Tehran. While it is at present unclear what occurred, there are fears that his disappearance and death may be connected to his calls in his writings for a more modern interpretation of Islam.
Additional: A writer, translator and devout Muslim, Sharif was a key member of a group calling itself "The Committee for Research into the books of Dr. Shariati." Shariati, who died during the time of the Shah, was a Sorbonne-educated university lecturer and Islamic scholar who advocated a more modern approach to Islam and a separation of religion and state. After the revolution which brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power, Shariati's books were all banned. Sharif, through his work with the Committee, called on the Iranian government to make them freely available once more. He wrote essays on political and sociological topics for an influential journal called Iran Farda (Iran Tomorrow). The body bore no signs of beating or torture. A story in the official press suggests he had suffered a heart attack, but the literary community in Iran is calling for a full investigation into his disappearance and death.
Country: MEXICO
CASENR: 12
Name: Fernando Martinez Ochoa
Nationality: Mexican
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date: 25 October 1998
Age:
Source: SNRPTASC, FIP
Description: Fernando Martinez Ochoa, a reporter from Juarez, was found dead in his car.
Country: MEXICO
CASENR: 13
Name: Eduardo Mendosa
Nationality: Mexican
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date: 27/28 October 1998
Age:
Source: SNRPTASC, FIP
Description: Eduardo Mendosa, was found stabbed to death on the back seat of his car.
Country: MEXICO
CASENR: 14
Name: Philip True
Nationality: US citizen
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: San Antonio Express- News
Sector: Press
Date: 5/15 December 1998
Age:
Source: CPJ, IFEX
Description: Philip True left his home in Mexico City on November 28 for a 10-day reporting trip through the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental of Nayarit and Jalisco states. After visiting the region earlier this year, True had filed a memo with his editors at the paper in April outlining a major project on the local Huichol Indians. True was last seen alive in the village of Chalmotitia on December 4. After an intensive search carried out by the Mexican military, True's body was located at the bottom of a ravine on December 15. He had been dead for as many as 10 days.
Additional: While initial reports suggested that he had been killed in a fall, forensic evidence made public by the medical examiner in Jalisco made clear that he had been strangled by a cloth and had sustained a head injury which was not attributed to a fall. It is believed that he was killed along a riverbank, and that his body was dragged or carried along the trail and dumped into the ravine. It was partially covered with rocks in an attempt to conceal it. Neither True's wedding ring nor his watch were taken, making robbery an unlikely motive, according to state officials in Jalisco. There is forensic evidence that True was sexually assaulted. It has been suggested that True may have either stumbled on sensitive information, or may have inadvertently offended local villagers by asking questions or taking photographs. The sexual assault may have been carried out in an effort to punish or humiliate him.
Country: PAKISTAN
CASENR: 15
Name: Lakhano Siyal
Nationality: Pakistani
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Aftab, Ibrat, Mehran
Sector: Press
Date: 18 October 1998
Age:
Source: PPF, IFEX
Description: On 18 October 1998, Lakhano Siyal, a senior journalist, was found murdered by unknown assailants when his family members returned home from a marriage function at 2 p.m. (local time). Siyal was a former vice-president of the Hyderabad Press Club and ex-chief reporter for the dailies Aftab, and Ibrat. He had also worked for Mehran, a local Sindhi daily. His family claimed that when they were leaving for the marriage party, two young boys, aged 15 to 17, came to meet Siyal. The two young visitors were left behind with Siyal as they often came to meet him.
Additional: Preliminary investigations conducted by police revealed that he was attacked with a sharp-edged weapon after having been gagged with a piece of cloth and that he had struggled against his attackers. A blood-stained Shalwar suit, a shirt and trousers were found at the scene of the murder, leading investigators to believe that the killers changed their clothes after the murder. Blood-stained hand prints were also found on a wash basin at the scene. Police have arrested thirteen persons on suspicion of Siyal's murder.
Country: PHILIPPINES
CASENR: 16
Name: Nelson Catipay
Nationality: Philippino
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: DXMY
Sector: Radio
Date: 17 April 1998
Age: 35
Source: CPJ, IFEX
Description: According to CPJ, journalist Nelson Catipay, a correspondent for radio station DXMY in Cotabato City, was shot while travelling in a jeepney (passenger minivan) to a news conference in the town of Sultan Kudarat. Catipay was killed by two unidentified men who were fellow passengers, according to police reports. The killers reportedly shot Catipay nine times before fleeing the scene. Police have made no arrests in the attack.
Additional: According to reports, Catipay was a commentator who denounced abuses and corruption in government at another radio station, which he left to join DXMY. His death may have been related to a land dispute but is also part of a pattern of rising violence against journalists in the Philippines.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 17
Name: Vladimir Zbaratski
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: ITAR-TASS News Agency
Sector: Wire
Date: 30 January 1998
Age:
Source: JUR
Description: On January 30, Vladimir Zbaratski, a staff member of ITAR-Tass news agency was assaulted on Mosrilmovskay Street, Moscow, as he was returning home from his office late at night. He was beaten and robbed. His murder is being investigated.
Country: RWANDA
CASENR: 18
Name: Wilson Ndayambadje
Nationality:
Profession:
Newsorgan: National Radio and Television
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 28 January 1998
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX
Description: Wilson Ndayambadje, a reporter in Gisenyi with the National Rwandan Radio and Television, was beaten and killed by a soldier from the national army, Emmanuel Rutayisire, after a fight between the two men. Rutayisire was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by a military tribunal on 29 January. He was executed the same day.
Country: TAJIKISTAN
CASENR: 19
Name: Otakhon Latyfi
Nationality: Tajik
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date: 22 September 1998
Age:
Source: IFJ, MFDJA
Description: Otakhon Latyfi was murdered near his home on 22 September 1998.
Total: 19
Sources
AJB = Association des Journalistes du Burkina – IFJ Member
ANP = Associación Nacional de Periodista del Peru - IFJ Member
APG = Associación de Periodistas de Guatemala
CCRG = Círculo Colombiano de Repórteros, IFJ Member
CJFE = Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
CPJ = Committee to Protect Journalists, USA
FENAJ = Federaçao Nacional do Jornalistas, IFJ Member
FIP = IFJ Latin America Office, Caracas
GDF = Glasnost Defence Foundation, Moscow
IFEX = International Freedom of Expression Exchange, Toronto
IJC = Independent Journalism Centre, Lagos
IPI = International Press Institute, Vienna
JUR = Journalists Union of Russia - IFJ Member
MFDJA = Mongolian Free Democratic Journalists’ Associationm IFJ Member
MISA = Media Institute of Southern Africa, Zambia
MW = Media Watch
NDIMA = Network for the Defence of Independent Media in Africa, Nairobi
NVJ = Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten, IFJ Member
OMCT = Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture, Geneva
Periodistas = Argentine Association for the Protection of Independent Journalism
PPF = Pakistan Press Foundation
RAT = Reporters’ Association of Thailand, IFJ Member
RSF = Reporters Sans Frontières, France
SDJB = Sindicato dos Jornalistas, Bahia
SDJP = Sindicato dos Jornalistas, Para
SDJR = Sindicato dos Jornalistas, Rondonia
SNRPTASC = Sindicato Nacional de Redactores de la Prensa y Trabajadores de Actividades Similares y Conexes, IFJ Member
WAJA = West African Journalists Association
WiPC = Writers in Prison Committee, London
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