Impunity

New York, January 23, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists urges a prompt and thorough investigation into the murder of Philippine radio commentator Badrodin Abbas, who was shot by two assailants late Wednesday in Cotabato City on the southern island of Mindanao. 

The conviction of the masterminds of José Emeterio Rivas’ murder did not surprise his colleagues in Barrancabermeja, a city in the northern Santander province, where the journalist was shot in 2003. The former mayor’s involvement in the crime and his relationship with paramilitary forces was a well-known secret in the city. Despite witnesses’ fear and…

New York, January 22, 2009–The convictions of three former public officials on charges of plotting the 2003 murder of Colombian radio commentator José Emeterio Rivas represent a historic step forward in the campaign to end impunity in the killings of journalists, CPJ said today. The three are the first masterminds to be convicted and imprisoned…

On Friday, as we welcomed the release of a journalist kidnapped in Somalia, we received a compelling account from a freelance reporter working in the capital, Mogadishu. Our colleague describes the perils of working in a city where journalists operate at the mercy of warring insurgents and government troops, and throughout Somalia, one of the world’s…

Making news today is yesterday’s release of our year-end analysis of the deadliest countries for journalists. The report found that 41 journalists were killed for their work in 2008, with Iraq named the most deadly for the sixth straight year. The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse all ran stories outlining the report’s findings yesterday. Today the story is receiving widespread coverage in both the…

The now infamous incident of Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi throwing his shoes at President George Bush became primetime news throughout the world. In the Middle East it has been shown on television almost endlessly. 

I last saw Deyda Hydara alive on December 14, 2004, only two days before his death. To this day, the gunmen who shot dead the Gambia’s best-known journalist as he drove home from work are still at large. The crime remains unsolved.

This morning, police in Burkina Faso summoned four leaders of a march over the weekend that called for a renewed investigation into the unsolved 1998 assassination of investigative journalist Norbert Zongo. Among those questioned was Jean-Claude Meda, the president of the Association of Journalists of Burkina Faso, who told me that he received a call…

Ten years ago on Saturday, the bullet-ridden bodies of investigative journalist Norbert Zongo and three friends were found in Zongo’s burned-out car outside the capital of Burkina Faso.

About 10 reporters sit on one of two wooden benches in the back of Room No. 4 at the Moscow District Military Court in Moscow. They’re gathered for the trial of three defendants accused of playing a role in the October 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Anna Politkovskaya. Only they won’t be attending…