It's a Dangerous Job

The number is down sharply, but it remains a grim one: 26 journalists killed in the line of duty in 1996, in contrast to 57 the year before. So reports the Committee to Protect Journalists in its annual survey, "Attacks on the Press in 1996." It also noted that 185 journalists were in prison in 24 countries at year's end.

Half of the murders took place in just two countries, Algeria, with 7, and Russia, with 6. CPJ's investigation concluded that Islamic militants were "presumed responsible" for all the killings in Algeria; the Armed Islamic Group has claimed responsibility for nearly half of the 59 such killings there since violent civil strife began in 1992. Elsewhere, the killers may be government agents, anti-government forces, or professional criminals. The common denominator is that the victims die because of their devotion to finding and telling the truth.

Here, according to CPJ, are the victims:
 

Algeria: 7

Name: Mohamed Mekati
Date Killed: January 10

Correspondent for a government-owned newspaper; shot outside his home in Ain Naadja, southwest of Algiers.

Abdallah Bouhachek
February 10

Editor of the weekly publication of the country's largest union; shot near Blida, south of Algiers.

Allaoua Ait M'barak
Mohamed Dorbane
Djamel Derraz
February 11

All journalists with an independent daily; killed, with at least fifteen others, when a car bomb exploded outside the Algiers building housing their newspaper and three others.

Djilali Arabidou
March 12

Dean of Algerian photojournalists; worked for a pro-government weekly; shot in a suburb of Algiers.

Mohamed Guessab
August 12

Host of a religious program on the state-run radio; shot while driving in an Algiers suburb; one brother riding with him was also killed and another was seriously wounded.

Angola: 1

Antonio Casemero
October 30

Correspondent for the state-owned television station; shot at his home in Cabinda; colleagues say he had been harassed and threatened by a regional official.

Bangladesh: 1

Mohammad Quamruzzaman
February 19

Reporter for a weekly newspaper; shot by police while covering their crackdown on an election protest in northern town of Nilphamari.

Cambodia: 1

Thun Bun Ly
May 18

Writer, former editor of an opposition newspaper ordered closed by the government; was appealing convictions for defamation and disinformation for work critical of the government when he was shot in central Phnom Penh.

Colombia: 1

Norvey Diaz
October 18

Director and editor of a radio program; found murdered in Girardot after receiving death threats over reporting on alleged police involvement in murders of street people and on investments in resorts by drug traffickers. (In March of this year, the chief editorial writer for Cali's main newspaper, El Pais, was gunned down after writing a series of harsh criticisms of drug corruption during the tenure of President Ernesto Sampere, The Associated Press reported.)

Cyprus: 1

Kutlu Adali
July 6

Political columnist with a leftist newspaper in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus; shot in Lefkosa after writing critically about government immigration policies and an antiquities scandal said to involve a Turkish general; a group calling itself Turkish Revenge Brigade claimed responsibility for the killing.

India: 2

Ghulam Rasool Sheikh
April 10

Editor of an Urdu-language daily and an English-language weekly; found dead in Kashmir's Jhelum River; said by family members to have been kidnapped in March by Indian-government-backed militia after writing about killings and arson in area of his hometown, Pampur.

Parag Kumar Das
May 17

Editor of the largest daily in Assam state and a leading journalistic voice for self-rule; shot in the state capital, Guwahati; he is believed to have been slain by a separatist splinter group.

Indonesia: 1

Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin
August 16

Correspondent for a Jogjakarta daily; beaten in his home after reporting on local land disputes.

Ireland: 1

Veronica Guerin
June 26

Crime reporter for The Sunday Independent; shot in her car after repeated physical attacks and death threats over her reporting on the Irish underworld; won CPJ's 1995 International Press Freedom Award; a Dublin drug trafficker has been charged in her murder.

Phillipines: 1

Ferdinand Reyes
February 13

Editor of the weekly newspaper Press Freedom; shot in his office in Dipolog; had received death threats for writing about corruption among officials.

Russia: 6

Felix Solovyov
February 26

 Free-lance photojournalist, contributor to German newspaper Bild am Sonntag; shot by unidentified gunmen in central Moscow; had published a portfolio on Moscow mafia groups.

Viktor Pimenov
March 11

Cameraman for a Chechen TV station supported by Moscow-backed forces; had been filming devastation caused by a Russian attack on Grozny, the Chechen capital; shot in the back by a sniper.

Nadezhda Chaikova
March 30

 Correspondent for a Russian weekly; known for exposés of Russian military atrocities in Chechnya; shot, execution-style; body found near village of Gekhi.

Nina Yefimova
May 9

Reporter for a Russian-language newspaper in Grozny; had written about crime in Chechnya; abducted with her mother; both found dead of bullet wounds.

Viktor Mikhailov
May 12

Crime reporter for a daily in southeastern Siberia; working on series on crime and law enforcement; beaten to death in city center of Chita.

Ramzan Khadzhiev
August 11

An ethnic Chechnyan, he was chief of the Northern Caucasus bureau of Russian Public Television; shot in a car in Grozny; a passenger said Russian armored vehicles had fired on the car; his employers blamed Chechen rebels angered by his support of the Moscow-installed government.

Tajikistan: 1

Viktor Nikulin
March 28

Correspondent for Russian Public Television in Dushanbe; shot at the door to his office; the government called the killing a "terrorist act" by opposition forces, but both government loyalists and opposition groups have been suspected in violent campaigns against press freedom that have left twenty-nine journalists dead since 1992.

TURKEY: 1

Metin Goktepe
January 8

Columnist for a left-leaning daily; found beaten to death in Istanbul; eleven policemen have been charged in his death and thirty-seven others have been charged with "dereliction of duty."

UKRAINE: 1

Igor Hrushetsky
May 10

Free-lance journalist known for his reports on political corruption; found dead of a blow to the head near his home in Cherkassy.

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