Iraqi television presenter, Riad al-Saray was shot today as he was leaving his home in Baghdad by unknown gunmen. He presented religious and political programmes on al-Iraqiya TV. Reporters Without Borders have called the attack a “targeted murder”.
Former TV presenter Sayed Hamid Noori was murderedat his home in Kabul on 5 September. He had been stabbed and his throat had been cut. The motives are unknown but he was an active member of the National Union of Afghan Journalists. Noori was a well-known TV anchor who went into politics and became the spokesman of Mohammad Yunus Qanooni, an opponent of President Hamid Karzai.
A prominent Greek journalist has been killed in front of his home by a gang of three masked gunmen. Sokratis Giolias, who ran radio station Thema FM and the popular news blog Troktiko, covering a number of political scandals in the process, was killed early on the morning of July 19.
A newspaper columnist has been charged with “insulting a public official” after he criticised the Turkish justice system’s management of the investigation into journalist Hrant Dink‘s murder. Daily News columnist Cengiz Cangar described the court as reckless and frivolous, and accused it of “forgetting to bring in the most crucial witness”, in a column entitled Hrant and Justice are being ridiculed. In his testimony to Turkey’s prosecutor of press crimes, Cangar argued that he had not directed his criticisms towards any specific individual, and that the presiding judge in the trial agreed that the courtroom had lacked decorum at points.