Posts Tagged ‘International day to end impunity’
November 17th, 2011
MURDERED 17 NOVEMBER 2007
Meher-un-Nisa Khan, Press Freedom Advocate — Mir Ali, Pakistan
Join us in demanding justice for Meher-un-Nisa. The wife of slain journalist Hayatullah Khan, Meher-un-Nisa, herself had become an advocate for journalists’ safety before she was murdered when a bomb detonated outside her bedroom window in Mir Ali, a militant stronghold in North Waziristan, on 17 November 2007. Her five children, who were sleeping in an adjoining bedroom, were not injured in the blast.
Hayatullah disappeared in December 2005 just days after he photographed shrapnel from a U.S. missile found at the scene where al-Qaeda leader Hamza Rabia was killed. His widely published photo contradicted a claim by the Pakistan government that Rabia died in an accidental explosion. Hayatullah’s body was found seven months later riddled with bullets, while another family member was killed several months later. Along with Mehr-un-Nisa’s murder, the killings are believed to be an attempt to stop the family from trying to expose Hayatullah’s killers. All three cases remain unsolved.
Take Action: Write a letter demanding justice for Meher-un-Nisa
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
November 16th, 2011
MURDERED 16 NOVEMBER 2009
Olga Kotovskaya, Co-Founder, Kaskad — Kaliningrad, Russia
Join us in demanding justice for Olga Kotovskaya. Authorities called it a suicide but her friends and colleagues of believe she was murdered in connection to her work: on 16 November 2009, Kotovskaya fell to her death from a 14th-floor window of a building that she reportedly had no reason to be in. For years, Kotovskaya had been embroiled in a lawsuit with Kaliningrad’s former vice governor, Vladimir Pirogov, over control of Kaskad. A week before her death, a local court upheld her claims that Pirogov had taken charge of the station using documentation containing forged signatures.
Take Action: Write a letter demanding justice for Olga Kotovskaya
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
November 15th, 2011
MURDERED 15 NOVEMBER 2006
Fadia Mohammed Abid, Journalist, “Al-Masar”, and her driver — Mosul, Iraq
Join us in demanding justice for Fadia Mohammed Abid. Gunmen in a car shot and killed the journalist and her driver in the Tahrir neighbourhood of east Mosul as they were on the way to the office on 15 November 2006. According to the International Federation of Journalists, there were four deadly attacks on Iraqi journalists and media workers that week alone.
In 2011, Iraq – with an impunity rating three times worse than that of any other nation – is ranked first in the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Impunity Index for the fourth straight year. Although crossfire and other conflict-related deaths have dropped in Iraq in recent years, the targeted killings of journalists spiked in 2010. Plus, says CPJ, not a single one of the 92 journalists’ murders recorded in Iraq this past decade has been solved.
Take Action: Write a letter demanding justice for Fadia Mohammed Abid
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
November 14th, 2011
MURDERED NOVEMBER 2007 (dates of deaths unknown)
Seif Yehia, Musician and Ibraheem Sadoon, Artist — Iraq
Join us in demanding justice for Seif Yehia and Ibraheem Sadoon. In November 2007, Yehia, 23, was beheaded for singing western songs at weddings, and Sadoon, a painter, was shot dead as he drove through Baghdad. According to the Iraqi Artists’ Association, in the first five years of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, at least 115 singers, 65 actors and 60 painters were killed – many by Islamic radicals determined to eradicate all culture associated with the West. Cinemas, art galleries and concert halls were targeted in grenade and mortar attacks in Basra and Baghdad.
Out of fear, people stopped listening to music in public, a fellow Iraqi singer told the “Guardian” at the time. Pop music, in particular, was no longer being played. Remaining artists tried to get themselves and their families to safety. In 2008, the Iraqi Ministry of Culture estimated that about 80 per cent of artists had fled.
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
November 13th, 2011
MURDERED 13 NOVEMBER 2008
José Armando Rodríguez Carreón, Reporter, “El Diario de Ciudad Juárez” — Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Join us in demanding justice for crime reporter José Armando Rodríguez Carreón, 40, who was shot at least eight times in a company-owned car parked inside his garage on 13 November 2008. His 8-year-old daughter, who was in the backseat, was uninjured. Rodríguez had recently written an article accusing the local prosecutor’s nephew of having links to drug traffickers. Earlier that year, as a result of threats to “tone it down,” Rodríguez was temporarily transferred to El Paso, Texas, for his safety. But on his return he insisted on resuming work without any special protection. He said, “The risks here are high and rising, and journalists are easy targets. But I can’t live in my house like a prisoner. I refuse to live in fear.”
In July 2009, the lead investigator on Rodriguez’s murder was shot to death. Less than a month later, his replacement was also murdered. Not one of the three cases has been solved. Drug-related violence has reportedly killed more than 35,000 in Mexico since the government launched an armed offensive against drug cartels five years ago. And as reported often by IFEX members, more journalists have been killed in Mexico than anywhere else in Latin America
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
November 12th, 2011
MURDERED 12 NOVEMBER 2004
Gene Boyd Lumawag Photo Editor, MindaNews news service — Jolo, Philippines
Join us in demanding justice for Gene Boyd Lumawag, shot in the head and killed instantly by an unidentified gunman in Jolo, Sulu, on 12 November 2004. Lumawag was preparing a story on good governance in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.
The exact motive for Lumawag’s murder was unclear. Army investigators and the head of the local anti-terrorism unit said they suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf, the Islamic separatist group linked to al-Qaeda that has made headlines in recent years with high-profile kidnappings for ransom. In late 2004, charges were filed against members of Abu Sayyaf, but the case remains unsolved. Military officials claimed that the suspects were killed in one of their operations against Abu Sayyaf.
Take Action: Write a letter demanding justice for Gene Boyd Lumawag
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
November 11th, 2011
MURDERED 11th NOVEMBER 2001
Johanne Sutton, Reporter, Radio France International
Pierre Billaud, Journalist, Radio Television Luxembourg
Volker Handloik, Freelance Reporter, “Stern” magazine Taloqan, Afghanistan
Join us in demanding justice for Johanne Sutton, Pierre Billaud and Volker Handloik, the first media casualties claimed by the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan on 11 November 2001. They were reporting on front-line fighting in northeastern Afghanistan when the Taliban fired upon their armoured personnel carrier.
In Afghanistan, journalists are sometimes caught in the crossfire. But ARTICLE 19 says that over the past five years, the leading cause of death among journalists in warzones has become murder, and that impunity is a primary concern. The Afghan organisation Nai says that 22 journalists have been killed (including six women) and another 23 kidnapped in the decade-long war. Around the world, domestic, regional or international jurisdiction, including the Geneva Conventions, has been largely ineffective in bringing justice or accountability to journalists – a situation leading ARTICLE 19 and many others to call for far greater implementation of a government’s responsibility to protect journalists.
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
November 10th, 2011
MURDERED 10 November 2006
Editor and Owner, “El Despertar de la Costa” — Ixtapa, Mexico
Join us in demanding justice for Misael Tamayo Hernández. A security guard came across his naked body in a motel room in Zihuatanejo, a Pacific coastal resort town in the southern state of Guerrero on 10 November 2006. His body was found with his hands tied behind his back. Three small puncture marks on his arm suggested he may have been given a lethal injection. A preliminary autopsy concluded that he died from a massive heart attack.
The motive behind the murder is still unknown, but there are indications it may have been related to his family-run newspaper’s investigative reporting on organised crime, drug trafficking and local corruption. Colleagues and family members at the paper said Tamayo had received death threats a couple of months before his murder, but that he had not taken them seriously.
Take Action: Write a letter demanding justice for Misael Tamayo Hernández
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
