Killed

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility reports today that a Philippine court has denied a motion to dismiss murder charges against two government officials accused of ordering the 2005 murder of journalist Marlene Garcia-Esperat.

We issued the following statement after Russia’s Prosecutor-General’s Office closed a criminal investigation into the unexplained death of investigative journalist Yuri Shchekochikhin in 2003…

The dire situation for journalists in Sri Lanka who have fallen out of favor with the government has not gone unnoticed at the U.S. State Department. On March 23, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a letter to Senator Robert Casey, who chaired the Senate Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on Sri Lanka on February 24.…

New York, April 2, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Guatemalan authorities today to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into the shooting of a two-man TV crew in Guatemala City on Wednesday. Unidentified gunmen killed veteran reporter Rolando Santiz and injured cameraman Antonio de León. 

New York, April 1, 2009–Gunmen shot and killed Honduran radio journalist Rafael Munguía Ortiz Tuesday night in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, according to local news reports. Honduran authorities must conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into Munguía’s killing and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

After each name was read aloud, the ring of a bell resonated through the studio auditorium that included many relatives, friends, and colleagues of the journalists whose names were being added to the Newseum Journalists Memorial. Some, like Tom Borrelli of The Buffalo News, died unexpectedly; Borrelli fell while climbing steep stairs on his way…

New York, March 27, 2009–Pakistani authorities must not allow Thursday’s shooting death of veteran Pakistani reporter Raja Assad Hameed in Rawalpindi go uninvestigated and unprosecuted, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

The case had all the hallmarks of a sordid thriller. There was “a rogue politician, a journalist getting killed, a staunchly incurious police, and the media in frenzy,” veteran journalist Lansana Gberie wrote in the New African, describing the fatal 2005 beating of editor Harry Yansaneh in Sierra Leone. 

We issued this statement today in response to media reports that Anil Majumdar, the editor of daily Assamese newspaper Aji, was shot dead near his home in Guwahati on Tuesday evening. India placed 14 on CPJ’s Impunity Index, released this week, for failing to prosecute journalist murders…

On February13, 2009, Venezuelan authorities arrested Rafael Segundo Pérez, a former sergeant for the Carabobo police, in connection to the January 16 killing of journalist Orel Sambrano, according to local news reports. Pérez is accused of working as a hired assassin and conspiring to commit a crime.