India: Two journalists murdered in space of two weeks

An Indian newspaper reporter has been beaten to death, less than two weeks after another journalist was clubbed to death in the same area. Rajesh Mishra was attacked and beaten on 1 March in the central state of Madhya Pradesh. Mishra, from weekly newspaper Media Raj, received threats following his reports about alleged mismanagement of a number of regional schools owned by Rajneesh Banerjee, the publisher of another Rewa-based newspaper, Vindhya Bharat. The journalist was invited to meet the editor of Vindhya Bharat at a tea stand, where he was attacked. Fellow journalist Chandrika Rai was beaten to death in Madhya Pradesh, along with his wife and two children, last month.

Somalia: Journalist shot dead in Galkayo

A Somalian journalist has been shot dead by gunmen. Ali Ahmed Abdi who worked for a Somali news website was shot in the head several times by masked men as he walked home on Sunday evening in the northern town of Galkayo. Until recently, Abdi had been working for the privately owned Galkayo Radio. Abdi is the third Somalian journalist to be killed this year. On Saturday, a media director in Puntland was arrested and detained following the closure of radio station Radio Voice of Peace. Officials did not give motive for Ali’s arrest, nor the shutting down of the radio station.

Somalia: Radio journalist murdered

A radio journalist has been shot dead by two unidentified men in Somalia. Abukar Hassan Mohamoud, nicknamed Kadaf,  was the manager of Mogadishu-based radio Somaliweyn. Mohamoud was shot five times in the head and chest at his home in Mogadishu on 28 February. Mohamoud, who had been trying to relaunch the radio station which had been shut down by an extremist group in May 2010, died from his injuries in hospital soon after the attack.

Bangladesh: TV journalist couple murdered in Dhaka

Two Bangladeshi television journalists have been murdered in Dhaka. Sagar Sarwar, news editor for private TV station Maasranga, and his wife, Meherun Runi, from another private station ATN Bangla were stabbed to death in the early hours of Saturday morning. The well known couple were found by their five-year-old son, who called relatives living nearby. A senior detective told local newspapers that preliminary investigations suggested that the killings had been planned and that the couple had probably known their attackers.