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According to Pakistani news sources, the body of the Pakistan bureau chief for Asia Times Online, has been found. He had been missing since Sunday. Previous reports said that he was under the custody of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. Human rights groups claim that the agency has abused and tortured journalists in the past. Saleem Shahzad’s disappearence followed after warnings from Pakistani security agencies over articles that seemed damaging to Pakistan’s national interest and image. Shahza recently covered the Pakistan Taliban’s attack of a naval air force base in Karachi on May 23.
Police in eastern Ukraine have reclassified the case of a missing journalist as “premeditated murder“. Vasyl Klymentyev, chief editor and reporter for newspaper Novyi Stil, was last seen on 11 August getting into a BMW with an unknown man. The Kharkiv-based weekly newspaper is well known for reporting on corruption in local government and law enforcement. Klymentyev’s most recent articles criticised a local prosecutor and head of the regional fiscal police, and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged investigators to focus on his journalism as a motive. Klymentyev’s deputy said that the editor had been threatened several times before and had been offered bribes to keep damaging information quiet.
Chinese police appear to have detained a blogger who posted images of the aftermath of a riot online, prompting concerns of a crackdown on citizen journalists. The images he had posted online have since been deleted or blocked. Read more here