Journalists Killed In 2000 Because of Their Work

by the Committee to Protect Journalists

BANGLADESH: 2

Mir Illias Hossain, Dainik Bir Darpan, January 15, Jhenaidah

Hossain, 43, editor of the newspaper Dainik Bir Darpan, was assassinated in the southwestern town of Jhenaidah by three attackers. The paper had been outspoken against left-wing militant activity in the area, arguing against violence and urging participation in the democratic process.

Shamsur Rahman, Janakantha, July 16, Jessore

Rahman, 43, a special correspondent for the national daily Janakantha and a frequent contributor to the BBC Bengali-language service, was killed by two armed men who entered his office and fired at him from point-blank range. Rahman had periodically received death threats for his reporting on criminal gangs and armed political groups in the region. Local police claimed that a gang of smugglers had plotted his murder. The police made a series of arrests, but all the suspects were subsequently released.

BRAZIL: 1

Zezinho Cazuza, Rádio Xingó FM, March 13, Canindé de São Francisco

Cazuza, a journalist with the local station Rádio Xingó FM in the city of Canindé de São Francisco, was shot to death after leaving a party. Cazuza had regularly accused the mayor, Genivaldo Galindo da Silva, of corruption. The magazine ISTOÉ reported that Galindo had publicly threatened to kill the journalist. Two days after the murder, police arrested a man who said the mayor had hired him to kill Cazuza for about $1,500.

COLOMBIA: 3

Juan Camilo Restrepo Guerra, Radio Galaxia Estéreo, October 31, Sevilla

Restrepo, 26, a community radio station director, was shot dead by a suspected right-wing paramilitary gunman. Government investigators told CPJ that the journalist was apparently murdered in retaliation for his sharp criticism of the local administration. Restrepo's brother, who witnessed the murder, has gone into hiding. A local source declined to give information about the killers, saying, "That would be like signing my own death sentence." No arrests have been made.

Gustavo Rafael Ruiz Cantillo, Radio Galeón, November 15, Pivijay

Ruiz, a correspondent for the regional station Radio Galeón, was shot and killed by two gunmen as he crossed the Pivijay market square. Colleagues said the gunmen were members of a right-wing paramilitary gang financed by "the rich people in the area." According to one source, gang members had told Ruiz, who covered politics, crime, and general news, to "give up that big mouth's job." No arrests have been made.

Alfredo Abad López, La Voz de la Selva, December 13, Florencia

Abad, 36, director of the local radio station La Voz de la Selva ("Voice of the Jungle"), was shot and killed by two suspected paramilitary gunmen on a motorcycle as he was saying goodbye to his wife outside their home. Recently, Florencia has become a power base for anti-Communist paramilitary forces linked to Carlos Castaño's United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). No arrests have been made.

GUATEMALA: 1

Roberto Martínez, Prensa Libre, April 27, Guatemala City

Martínez, 37, a photographer for the Guatemala City daily Prensa Libre, was killed when private security guards opened fire on rioters protesting increases in bus fares. A woman standing near Martínez was also killed and a number of people were injured, including two other journalists. At the time of the attack, Martínez and his colleagues were carrying cameras and other professional equipment that clearly identified them as journalists.

HAITI: 1

Jean Léopold Dominique, Radio Haïti Inter, April 3, Port-au-Prince

Dominique, 69, the outspoken owner and director of Radio Haïti Inter, was shot dead in the early hours of April 3 as he arrived to host the morning news. The station's security guard was also killed. Dominique was Haiti's most prominent political journalist and a long-time advocate of free speech.

INDIA: 1

Pradeep Bhatia, The Hindustan Times, August 10, Srinagar

Bhatia, 31, a photographer for The Hindustan Times, was one of more than a dozen people killed in a bomb attack in the Kashmir capital, Srinagar. The militant group Hezb-ul Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for the attack, which injured at least six other journalists. Most of them were on the scene to report on a bomb that had exploded 15 minutes earlier.

MOZAMBIQUE: 1

Carlos Cardoso, Metical, November 22, Maputo

Cardoso, 48, editor of the daily fax newsletter Metical, was shot dead by two assassins wielding AK-47 assault rifles as he left his office in the capital, Maputo. He was known for his groundbreaking reporting on political corruption and organized crime in Mozambique, a country still recovering from a 17-year civil war. Although Cardoso sympathized with the ruling FRELIMO party, he often lambasted the government in his editorials. Metical had also reported recently on alleged wrongdoing at the Mozambique Commercial Bank. Though the Mozambican government condemned Cardoso's assassination and promised a full investigation, local journalists say police have been dragging their feet.

PAKISTAN: 1

Sufi Mohammad Khan, Ummat, May 2, Shadi Large

Khan, 38, an investigative reporter with the Karachi-based daily Ummat who aggressively covered drug trafficking and organized prostitution, was shot dead by an alleged drug trafficker in the town of Shadi Large, southern Sindh Province. The killer had reportedly visited Khan's house and warned him not to publish any more stories. On May 2, after another Khan investigation appeared inUmmat, the assassin confronted him and opened fire. Shortly after, the murderer surrendered to police and confessed to the murder.

PHILIPPINES: 2

Vincent Rodriguez, dzMM Radio, May 23, Sasmuan

Rodriguez, a correspondent for the Manila-based radio station dzMM, was killed on assignment in Sasmuan when guerrillas ambushed a boat convoy in which he was travelling. Rodriguez was covering a tour by government officials of village development projects. The Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB), a rebel group, claimed responsibility for the attack but apologized for the journalist's murder. They said local police were the intended target.

Olimpio Jalapit, Jr., dxPR Radio, November 17, Pagadian City

Jalapit, 34, host of a morning program on local radio station dxPR, was shot and killed in Pagadian City while on his way to a meeting with a government official. He had received numerous death threats over the years. On the morning of the murder a message on his cell phone said, "I will kill you today." Jalapit's program discussed sensitive issues such as political corruption, illegal gambling, the drug trade, and armed separatist movements in the southern Philippines.

RUSSIA: 3

Vladimir Yatsina, ITAR-TASS, February 20, Chechnya

Yatsina, 51, a photographer with the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, was killed by Chechen militants who had taken him hostage. Two former hostages said they had seen Chechen guards shoot Yatsina dead after he fell behind on a forced march. Yatsina had been kidnapped on July 19, 1999, before the latest Russian military campaign against Chechen separatists. A month later, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of $2 million from his family; they later demanded the same amount from ITAR-TASS.

Aleksandr Yefremov, Nashe Vremya, May 12, Chechnya

Yefremov, 41, a photo-correspondent with the western Siberian newspaper Nashe Vremya, was killed in Chechnya when rebels blew up a military jeep in which he was riding. On previous assignments, Yefremov had won acclaim for his news photographs from the war-torn region.

Igor Domnikov, Novaya Gazeta, July 16, Moscow

Domnikov, 42, a reporter and special-projects editor for the biweekly Moscow paper Novaya Gazeta, was attacked in the entryway of his apartment building on May 12, hit repeatedly on the head with a heavy object, and left lying unconscious in a pool of blood. He died on July 16, after two months in a coma. Both the police and Domnikov's colleagues were certain the attack was related to his professional activity or that of Novaya Gazeta.

SIERRA LEONE: 3

Saoman Conteh, New Tablet, May 8, Freetown

Conteh, 48, a journalist with the independent weekly New Tablet, was shot while covering a demonstration outside the Freetown residence of Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Foday Sankoh. Sankoh's bodyguards opened fire on a crowd protesting the May 3 abduction of United Nations peacekeepers by the RUF. At least 19 people were killed.

Kurt Schork, Reuters, and Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora, Associated Press, May 24, Rogberi Junction

Schork, 53, a veteran Reuters war correspondent, and Gil Moreno, 32, a cameraman with The Associated Press Television Network, were killed in an ambush by rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The journalists were traveling in two vehicles with soldiers from the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) when RUF forces opened fire on them east of Rogberi Junction, 54 miles from Freetown. The area had recently been the scene of fierce fighting between rebels and pro-government forces. Four SLA soldiers were also killed, and two other Reuters journalists were wounded.

SOMALIA: 1

Ahmed Kafi Awale, Radio of the Somali People, January 26, Mogadishu

Awale, a reporter for warlord Hussein Mohamed Aidid's Radio of the Somali People, was shot dead while on assignment at Bakara market in Mogadishu. A stray bullet hit Awale as thieves escaping from market guards fired shots to clear their way. Three other people were killed in the incident, and seven were seriously injured.

SPAIN: 1

José Luis López de la Calle, El Mundo, May 7, Andoain

López de la Calle, 63, a regular contributor to the Basque edition of the Madrid-based daily El Mundo, was shot dead outside his home in Andoain. Interior Ministry officials attributed the crime to the Basque separatist group ETA. López de la Calle was an outspoken critic of ETA's violent campaign for Basque independence, and had received death threats from the group.

SRI LANKA: 1

Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, BBC, Virakesari, Ravaya, October 19, Jaffna

Nimalarajan reported from the besieged city of Jaffna for the BBC's Tamil and Sinhala-language services, the Tamil-language daily Virakesari, and the Sinhala-language weekly Ravaya. He was shot late at night through the window of his study, where he was working on an article. The assailants also threw a grenade into his house, seriously injuring Nimalarajan's parents and his 11-year-old nephew. The murder was apparently prompted by Nimalarajan's reports on vote-rigging and intimidation during recent parliamentary elections.

UKRAINE: 1

Georgy Gongadze, Ukrainska Pravda, September 16, Kyiv

Gongadze, 31, editor of the news Web site Ukrainska Pravda (http://www.pravda.com.ua), which often featured articles critical of President Leonid Kuchma and other Ukrainian government officials, disappeared in Kyiv on September 16.

In early November, a headless corpse was discovered outside the town of Tarashcha. Based on jewelry found at the scene and an X-ray of the corpse's hand that showed an old injury matching one Gongadze had suffered, his colleagues concluded the body was indeed Gongadze's.

In late November, an opposition leader released an audiotape that seemed to implicate Kuchma and two senior aides in the journalist's disappearance. On December 29, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported that a German forensic analysis appeared to link the corpse to the missing journalist. While the Ukrainian government claimed to be conducting DNA tests, accusations that it was staging a cover-up appear to pose a serious political threat to Kuchma.

URUGUAY: 1

Julio César Da Rosa, Radio del Centro, February 24, Baltasar Brum

Da Rosa, owner and editor of the independent station Radio del Centro, was murdered by former local official Carmelo Nery Colombo, who shot the journalist and then turned the weapon on himself. The attack was apparently provoked by Da Rosa's on-air suggestion that Colombo was unfit to run for public office.

Documenting the Deaths

CPJ researchers apply stringent guidelines and journalistic standards to determine whether journalists were killed on assignment or as a direct result of their professional work. By publicizing and protesting these killings, CPJ works to help change the conditions that foster violence against journalists. The death toll that CPJ compiles each year is one of the most widely cited measures of press freedom in the world.

For more information about journalists killed in 2000, and for information about the work of CPJ, including information about attacks on journalists worldwide, visit CPJ's Web site (http://www.cpj.org) or call 212-465-9344 ext. 105.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom everywhere.