An Egyptian photographer has become the first journalist to die covering the anti-Mubarak protests.
Ahmad Mohamed Mahmoud, who worked for Al-Ta’awun, died from gunshot wounds sustained a week ago when he was shot by a sniper.
Journalists face ongoing attacks and detentions in Cairo. The Committee to Protect Journalists has compiled a round-up of the latest attacks on the press.
The AFP this morning reported that a radio journalist has been shot dead in the northern Philippines, the second killing of a journalist this week.
The press men, killed in separate attacks at opposite ends of the country within the space of 24 hours, were both outspoken radio broadcasters known for their criticism of corrupt local officials.
The AFP reports that 33 journalists were killed in the Philippines last year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
More than 100 have been killed since President Gloria Arroyo came to power in 2001, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.
(via @globalfreemedia)
On Friday (14 May) The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that it is concerned about the “deteriorating security situation for reporters in Thailand…”
Three journalists were shot and injured on Friday when security forces and protesters exchanged fire that resulted in at least seven deaths and more than 100 injuries, according to local and international news reports.
Three Nigerian journalists were killed last weekend, in two separate incidents, reports the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Muslim rioters killed two reporters working with a local Christian newspaper on Saturday, according to local journalists and news reports. Also on Saturday, court reporter Edo Sule Ugbagwu, at left, from the private daily The Nation was shot dead at his home by two gunmen, according to local journalists.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has a special report on Ahmed Omar Hashi, a Somali journalist CPJ has helped through its assistance programme.
He’s been threatened and targeted for death. He’ seen his colleagues and friends killed. Now, like other Somali journalists, Hashi struggles in exile and hopes one day he can resume his work.
(Hat tip to Jon Slattery for this one)
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has produced a sobering page of interactive graphics illustrating the number of journalists killed in action across the world.
Journalists’ deaths are shown by country, by best and in a chart plotting the number of deaths from 1992 to 2009. According to the site, 32 journalists have been killed this year with a motive for their deaths confirmed.
A piece by Lawrence Pintak and Yosri Fouda in the Columbia Journalism Review argues that ‘well-meaning’ Western journalism rights groups undermine journalism ‘by defending Arab and Iranian online activists who have been jailed or harassed by the authorities’.
The Committee to Protect Journalists responds here.
From the Committtee to Protect Journalists: “After more than a month of detention, several journalists may face trial beginning on Saturday on charges of ‘sending pictures to enemy media’.”
In addition, three documentary filmmakers were arrested on Thursday; the total of journalists currently held in Iranian jails is currently 42, the highest count in the world.
Karen Phillips reports on the latest research from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ): ‘Journalists in Exile 2009’.
“Sri Lankan journalists flee under severe pressure in the past year. Iraq and Somalia, two deadly countries for the press, also rank high in numbers of journalists forced into exile. Hundreds of journalists have been driven into exile this decade.”
(…)
“Nearly 400 journalists have been forced into exile worldwide since 2001, when CPJ began compiling detailed data. Illustrating the extraordinary dangers facing these journalists at home, more than 330 of them remain in exile today.”