Committee to Protect Journalists

The new president of the Philippines says many slain journalists were corrupt and deserved to die

“Just because you’re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination if you’re a son of a bitch,” Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s said during a press conference, justifying the killing of journalists. He claimed that many killed journalists were either corrupt or had “done something” that warranted their murders, according to press accounts. He also warned that journalists who defamed others in their news reporting would not necessarily be protected under the law from violent reprisals.

Duterte made the remarks in response to a reporter’s question on Tuesday about how his government would handle cases of media murders, according to news reports.

Reporting on Life, Death and Corruption in Southeast Asia

(via NYTIMES)

I have covered life and death in Southeast Asia for the past decade, a job that has entailed puzzling over a missing Malaysian plane one day (two years later, it’s still missing) and interviewing former C.I.A. mercenaries who were being hunted by the government in the jungles of Laos another. I seemed to spend almost as much time dodging the authorities as interviewing them.

Impunity Spotlight: Somalia

Abdirizak Ali Abdi,Freelance

November 16, 2014, in Galkayo, Puntland, Somalia

Two unknown, hooded gunmen shot Abdirisak Ali Abdi in the head and chest while he was sitting in a restaurant in the northern suburb of Galkayo town, according to news reports and the director of Daljir Radio, Mohamed Abdulahi, who spoke to CPJ. The two gunmen fled the scene before police arrived. Abdirisak died while receiving treatment for his injuries at Mudug General Hospital, the same sources said.

Somalia

Not one year has passed over the last decade without a journalist being murdered in civil war-wracked Somalia, which first appeared on the index in 2008. At least 30 journalists have been murdered without any consequence for the perpetrators in this index period, the majority targeted by Al-Shabaab militants who for years have threatened and assaulted journalists in relation to their coverage of the group’s activities. While the government has pinned its impunity problem on the political instability and shortage of resources inflicted by 20 years of civil war, journalists say authorities fail to conduct even minimal investigations when journalists are killed. In April, unidentified armed men broke into the home of Daud Ali Omar at night and killed him and his wife while they were sleeping. Daud was a producer for a privately owned, pro-government radio station, and local journalists and police said they suspected Al-Shabaab was responsible.

IMPUNITY INDEX RATING: 2.857 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants

LAST YEAR: Ranked 2nd with a rating of 2.549

Impunity Spotlight: Iraq

Kawa Garmyane, Rayel, Awene

December 5, 2013, in Kalar, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq

Unknown gunmen shot and killed Garmyane outside his home in town of Kalar, south of the Kurdish Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah, news reports said.

Garmyane was the editor-in-chief of the news website Rayel and a correspondent for the Kurdish-language newspaper Awene. Garmyane had published several reports alleging corruption among Kurdish politicians, especially of those within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party, according to the Sulaymaniyah-based press freedom group Metro Center for Journalist Rights and Advocacy.

News reports said that three days prior to his death Garmyane posted on his Facebook page that he planned to publish a new report on corruption.

Iraq

For the first time since CPJ compiled the Impunity Index, Iraq is not ranked as the worldwide worst offender. Its numbers of unsolved murders remain staggering-84 journalists have been slain with complete impunity over the last decade, far more than any other country-but lethal anti-press violence, while still frequent, has fallen from its height in 2006 and 2007 when a combined total of 55 journalists were murdered. Dozens of attacks ranging from abductions to murder are believed to have taken place in territories controlled by Islamic State militants, but the group’s tight control of information has prevented CPJ from confirming most of these attacks and including those victims on this list, a fact that belies Iraq’s ostensible improvement. Only one case in Iraq has met with any level of justice, and it took place in the autonomous Kurdistan region. In October 2014, a criminal court sentenced a suspect to death for the 2013 killing of Kawa Garmyane, editor-in-chief of a monthly magazine in Kurdistan. While the conviction, the first in Iraq, is a major leap forward in the fight against impunity, the case was set back in January this year when the same court acquitted the military commander charged with ordering the assassination.

IMPUNITY INDEX RATING: 2.414 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants

LAST YEAR: Ranked 1st with a rating of 3.067

Impunity Spotlight: Syria

Al-Moutaz Bellah Ibrahim

Shaam News Network. May 4, 2014, in Raqqa, Syria

Ibrahim, a correspondent for the independent Shaam News Network and a freelance reporter, was killed in Tel Abyad, a Syrian town north of the city of Raqqa, on May 4, according to Shaam and the Beirut-based SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom. Ibrahim was kidnapped by the Islamic State militant group (then called Islamic State in Iraq and Sham) in March, two months before his death, according to news reports and local press groups. His family received his body on May 7, 2014.

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Syria is #3 on CPJ’s 2015 Impunity Index, which calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population. This month CPJ is highlighting cases from each of the 14 countries on the list ahead of the International Day to End Impunity on November 2.

Syria

War-torn Syria has jumped two spots to number three from number five. Eleven journalists have been deliberately killed since 2012, all with complete impunity. Increasingly, violence against the press is used in Syria not only as a means to control coverage but as a propaganda tactic. Islamist State militants beheaded three foreign correspondents beginning in August 2014, videotaping the gruesome acts for social media. But local journalists covering the devastating conflict within their own communities are frequently targeted not only by militant groups, but security forces and Syrian rebels. Syria is the most dangerous country in the world for journalists. Since the conflict began in 2011, at least 85 journalists have been killed by crossfire, on dangerous assignments, or murdered.

IMPUNITY INDEX RATING: 0.496 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants

LAST YEAR: Ranked 5th with a rating of 0.313

Impunity Spotlight: The Philippines

Gerardo Ortega, DWAR

January 24, 2011, in Puerto Princesa City, Philippines

Ortega, host of a talk show on local radio station DWAR, was shot in the back of the head as he was shopping in a Puerto Princesa City clothing store shortly after his morning broadcast, according to local and international news reports. Ortega, 47, had recently received death threats from an unknown source, according to The Associated Press. The journalist had openly criticized local officials accused of corruption and had opposed provincial mining projects, news reports said.

The Philippines

Though it has dropped to fourth from third on the Impunity Index, the Philippines remains the only country within the top five impunity offenders not engulfed by conflict and acute political instability. At least 44 murders have taken place since September 2005 with complete impunity; seven have occurred under the current administration of President Benigno Aquino III. Justice for the 32 media victims and 26 others slaughtered in the 2009 massacre in Maguindanao appears moreelusive than ever. No one has yet been convicted of the crime and, after six years of protracted legal proceedings, the suspected mastermind has now died of natural causes. The 2013 conviction of the gunman who assassinated investigative journalist Gerardo Ortega was a welcome advance, but the two former politicians accused of commissioning the crime have not yet stood trial.

IMPUNITY INDEX RATING: 0.444 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants

LAST YEAR: Ranked 3rd with a rating of 0.527

Impunity Spotlight: South Sudan

Peter Julius Moi, Freelance

August 19, 2015, in Juba, South Sudan

Unknown assailants shot Moi twice in the back near his home in the capital, Juba, at around 8 p.m., according to news reports. The journalist was walking home from work when the attack occurred, according to news reports and his family, who spoke to CPJ. Moi’s phone and money were not taken in the attack, news reports said.

South Sudan

South Sudan joins the Impunity Index just four years after becoming an independent nation. Five journalists were killed on January 25, 2015, when unidentified gunmen ambushed an official convoy in South Sudan’s Western Bahr al Ghazal state. A total of 11 people died in the attack. According to witnesses, the victims were shot and attacked with machetes before being set on fire. CPJ is investigating the murder of a sixth journalist, reporter Peter Julius Moi, who was shot in the back while walking home from work August 19, 2015. No attackers in either incident have been apprehended. The killings bring a new level of intimidation to South Sudan’s beleaguered media. Since civil war broke out in 2013, security agents have harassed the press and raided media outlets to limit coverage of rebel activities, according to CPJ research. South Sudan is now the second worst impunity offender in Africa after Somalia.

IMPUNITY INDEX RATING: 0.420 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants

LAST YEAR: South Sudan has not appeared on any previous index

Impunity Spotlight: Sri Lanka

Lasantha Wickramatunga, The Sunday Leader

January 8, 2009, in an area outside Colombo, Sri Lanka

Eight helmeted men on four motorcycles forced Wickramatunga’s car to the side of a busy street outside Colombo and beat him with iron bars and wooden poles. He died in a local hospital a few hours later.

Wickramatunga, editor-in-chief of the weekly The Sunday Leader, was a prominent senior Sri Lankan journalist known for his critical reporting on the government. According to his brother, Lal Wickramatunga, chairman of the paper’s parent company, Leader Publications, the editor had received anonymous death threats for months.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka moved to sixth place from fourth on this year’s Index, its improvement due not to prosecutions-the island nation still maintains a perfect record of impunity in journalist slayings-but to the fact that no journalists have been murdered for their work since the end of civil war in 2009. So far, President Maithripala Sirisena, inaugurated in January this year, has demonstrated greater political will for justice than his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa, under whose leadership nine media murders, including the five from this index period, took place. In May, Sirisena pledged to reopen the investigations into journalists killed or disappeared during the last 30 years, naming the assassination of prominent editor Lasantha Wickramatunga and the disappearance of cartoonist Prageeth Eknelygoda as priority cases. Since then, at least seven army officers have beenarrested in connection with Eknelygoda’s case. Wickramatunga’s and all other killings remain unsolved.

IMPUNITY INDEX RATING: 0.242 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants

LAST YEAR: Ranked 4th with a rating of 0.443

Impunity Spotlight: Afghanistan

Ajmal Naqshbandi, freelance

April 8, 2007, in Helmand province, Afghanistan

Taliban fighters beheaded reporter Ajmal Naqshbandi in the Garmsir district of Helmand province after the Afghan government refused demands to free jailed Taliban leaders in exchange for the journalist’s release.

Naqshbandi was abducted on March 4 with La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo and the group’s driver, Sayed Agha, in Helmand province. Agha was slain a few days after the abduction, while the Italian Mastrogiacomo was released March 19 in exchange for five Taliban prisoners.

Afghanistan

No perpetrators have been held responsible in any of the five targeted killings that took place in Afghanistan in the decade covered by this year’s index. Cases include Zakia Zaki, shot seven times in 2007 by gunmen who stormed her home. Zaki had received warnings she should shut down the independent radio station she directed, which covered human rights and local politics. Foreign journalists have also been frequent targets in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, following elections last year that brought in the administration of President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, Afghanistan’s first vice-president, Abdul Rashid Dostum, marked the first International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists by meeting with journalists and promising support for the media, according to news reports. He also included a warning, however, for journalists who desecrate religion: “I will strangle such a person myself.”

IMPUNITY INDEX RATING: 0.158 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants

LAST YEAR: Ranked 6th with a rating of 0.168

Impunity Spotlight: Mexico

Rubén Espinosa Becerril, Proceso,AVC Noticias, Cuartoscuro

July 31, 2015, in Mexico City, Mexico

Espinosa was found in an apartment with four female victims, and all of them had been shot in the head, authorities said on August 2. One of the victims, Nadia Vera, was a friend of Espinosa’s and a student activist in Xalapa, the Veracruz online publication Plumas Libresreported.

Espinosa fled Veracruz state and arrived in Mexico City in June 2015, he told CPJ in an interview that month. He worked for the local news agency AVC Noticias, the national newsweekly Proceso, and photo agency Cuartoscuro and often covered local activist causes, local journalists told CPJ.

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Mexico is #8 on CPJ’s 2015 Impunity Index, which calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population. This month CPJ is highlighting cases from each of the 14 countries on the list ahead of the International Day to End Impunity on November 2.

Mexico

Mexico’s impunity rating has more than doubled since it first appeared on the index in 2008. Nineteen journalists covering crime and corruption were murderedwith complete impunity over the last decade. In 2013, Mexico introducedlegislation to enable federal authorities in Mexico to prosecute crimes against journalists, but the measure has failed to yield prosecutions, disappointing journalists and freedom of expression advocates. Since its passage, six more journalists have been murdered with impunity. In a chilling development this July, Mexican photographer Rubén Espinosa was tortured and murdered in Mexico City, previously considered a safe haven for journalists facing threats in Veracruz and other cartel-dominated states. Following the murder, more than 700 writers signed a letter to President Enrique Peña Nieto calling for the full investigation into crimes against journalists. “Organized crime, corrupt government officials, and a justice system incapable of prosecuting criminals all contribute to reporters’ extreme vulnerability,” read the letter, which CPJ supported.

IMPUNITY INDEX RATING: 0.152 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants

LAST YEAR: Ranked 7th with a rating of 0.132

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