Introduction
In a year marked by regional conflict, war and civil disorder, the IFJ has counted the killing of at least 60 journalists, all of whom died in the line of duty. The IFJ is investigating a further 4 murders and cases of journalists missing.
The IFJ lists all journalists killed while working or because of their work. We make no distinction between a correspondent caught in the crossfire while covering a war and the violent death of other journalists killed while on assignment.
The IFJ works with other groups, notably the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), who also compile annual lists. However, our numbers differ because those groups only count the accidental deaths of journalists when they are covering an armed conflict. We include all forms of journalistic activity.
Many journalists are the victims of tragic accidents, some are the targets of violence and others are brutally assassinated. It is not possible to make simple distinctions in drawing up this list. In some cases, especially in Latin America and the countries of the former Soviet Union, it is difficult even to find the specific motive for a killing. In some areas the appalling failure of official investigation, in Russia for instance, leads us to include all cases of violent death unless information is provided to the contrary.
What is certain beyond doubt, is that 1995 has been another tragic year for media freedom. Figures for 1994 were higher, but were distorted by the heavy killings of journalists during the genocide carried out in Rwanda. There is no doubt that more must be done to highlight the dangers facing professional journalists. For that reason, the IFJ launched a new service in 1994 — the Journalists' Safety Service (JSS) — to provide support for journalists and their unions.
Country By Country Analysis 1995
JK = Journalists Killed
MSK = Media Staff Killed
UI/M = Under Investigation or Missing
| Country | Journalists Killed (JK) | Media Staff Killed (MSK) | Under Investigation / Missing (UI/M) |
| Algeria | 24 | 6 | 0 |
| Angola | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Azerbaijan | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Bosnia | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Brazil | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Burundi | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Canada | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Colombia | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Dominican Republic | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Guatemala | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| India | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Mexico | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Russia | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Rwanda | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Somalia | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Sri Lanka | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Tajikistan | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Thailand | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Tunisia | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Uganda | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Ukraine | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 61 | 6 | 4 |
PART I: JOURNALISTS KILLED (JK)
ALGERIA
CASE 1: Zineddine Aliou Salah
News Organ: Liberté | Sector: Press | Date: 06/01/95 (Age: 35)
Description: Salah, an investigative reporter with the main French-language newspaper in Algiers, was shot dead by suspected Muslim fundamentalists in the town of Blida, where he lived. He was attacked by two unknown individuals as he was leaving home. He had been receiving death threats from the Islamic Salvation Army, and his name was on a target list displayed at mosques in Blida.
CASE 2: Ali Abboud
News Organ: Channel 1 | Sector: Radio | Date: 07/01/95 (Age: 38)
Description: Abboud, director of the Arabic-language service of the radio station "Channel 1", died from wounds received the day before when he was shot in the head by suspected fundamentalists near his home in Birkhadem, a suburb of Algiers.
CASE 3: Abdelhamid Yahiaoui
News Organ: El Chaab | Sector: Press | Date: 12/01/95 (Age: 33)
Description: Yahiaoui, a journalist with the government-controlled newspaper, was abducted by suspected fundamentalists and found dead the following day, January 13, some 100 metres away from his home with two bullets in his head. He had previously expressed to colleagues his hope "to die without suffering".
CASE 4: Nasser Ouari
News Organ: ENTV | Sector: Television | Date: 01/02/95
Description: Ouari was killed by two unknown individuals armed with hunting rifles in the town of Sidi Moussa as he was leaving home for work. He produced a weekly television programme for deaf viewers.
CASE 5: Djamel Ziater
News Organ: El Djoumhouria | Sector: Press | Date: 17/02/95 (Age: 35)
Description: Ziater, a journalist for the state-run regional newspaper in western Algeria, was shot dead by unknown assailants while he was visiting his mother's grave at the cemetery of Gdiel, roughly 20 km from the city of Oran.
CASE 6: Ali Boukerbache
News Organ: Media-TV | Sector: Television | Date: 21/03/95 (Age: 53)
Description: Boukerbache, owner of the private television production company "Media-TV" and a former newspaper journalist, was shot dead while driving in Rouiba industrial city. He had recently completed a documentary on women and terrorism.
CASE 7: Mohamed Abderrahmani
News Organ: El Moudjahid | Sector: Press | Date: 27/03/95 (Age: 57)
Description: Abderrahmani, editor of Algeria's oldest French-language newspaper, was shot dead at a crossroads in the Ruisseau area of southern Algiers by fundamentalists whilst going to work. He had publicly referred to the radicals as the "Khmer Green". The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) claimed responsibility, calling him a "miscreant".
CASE 8: Rachida Hammadi
News Organ: ENTV | Sector: Television | Date: 31/03/95 (Age: 32)
Description: Hammadi, a well-known television reporter, was ambushed along with her sister Houria (a secretary at the station) outside their apartment complex by fundamentalists. Her sister died immediately, and Rachida succumbed to her wounds days later in a Paris hospital. She was the first female journalist killed by extremists in Algeria, and the GIA claimed responsibility via their bulletin Al Ansar.
CASE 9: Makhlouf Boukhezar
News Organ: ENTV | Sector: Television | Date: 04/04/95 (Age: 51)
Description: Boukhezar, a sports journalist, was abducted from his home by armed men dressed in police uniforms. He was found dead with his throat slashed in the trunk of his car in Constantine.
CASE 10: Azzedine Saidj
News Organ: El Ouma | Sector: Press | Date: 15/05/95
Description: Saidj, editor-in-chief of the defunct independent weekly, was found dead with his throat slit inside his car 15 km east of Algiers.
CASE 11: Bakhti Benaouda
News Organ: el-Joumhouriya | Sector: Press | Date: 21/05/95 (Age: 34)
Description: Benaouda, a writer, university lecturer, and journalist, was shot at point-blank range by two suspected fundamentalists in the western city of Oran.
CASE 12: Malika Sabour
News Organ: Echourouk al Arabi | Sector: Press | Date: 21/05/95 (Age: 22)
Description: Sabour, a young female journalist with the large Arabic-language weekly, was gunned down inside her home in the Reghaia suburb in front of her family by attackers pretending to be policemen.
CASE 13: Mourad Hamazia
News Organ: ENTV | Sector: Television | Date: 27/05/95 (Age: 30)
Description: Hamazia was killed when assailants attacked the car taking him home from the television headquarters in central Algiers.
CASE 14: Ahmed Takouchet (alias Hakim)
News Organ: Cirta | Sector: Radio | Date: 18/06/95 (Age: 30)
Description: Takouchet, a radio journalist, was kidnapped from his home in Constantine by four alleged extremists and found dead the next day with his throat slit.
CASE 15: Naima Hamouda
News Organ: Revolution africaine | Sector: Press | Date: 02/08/95
Description: Hamouda, a cultural reporter, was found shot dead and severely disfigured near an apartment building in the Saoula suburb. Due to the state of her body, she was not correctly identified until August 11.
CASE 16: Ameur Ouagueni
News Organ: Le Matin | Sector: Press | Date: 21/08/95 (Age: 36)
Description: Ouagueni, head of the international news section at the daily, died in an Algiers military hospital a day after being shot in the El-Biar residential area.
CASE 17: Brahim Garoui (nicknamed Gebe)
News Organ: El Moudjahid | Sector: Press | Date: 02/09/95 (Age: 40)
Description: Garoui, a political cartoonist, was found dead two days after gunmen kidnapped him from his home in the eastern suburb of Eucalyptus.
CASE 18: Said Tarzout
News Organ: Le Matin | Sector: Press | Date: 03/09/95 (Age: 32)
Description: Tarzout, a reporter, was gunned down near his home in Tizi-Ouzou, dying from numerous gunshots to the head.
CASE 19: Yasmina Brikh
News Organ: Radio-Culture | Sector: Radio | Date: 04/09/95
Description: Brikh, a cultural radio journalist, was shot dead in the Eucalyptus area, a rebel stronghold. She was the third journalist killed in less than 48 hours.
CASE 20: Said Brahimi
News Organ: ENTV | Sector: Television | Date: 08/09/95 (Age: 35)
Description: Brahimi was shot dead in his car along with his wife Radja (a 25-year-old technician at the station) in Cherarda village while on their way to visit his parents. The attack occurred shortly after a GIA ultimatum warning journalists to leave their work.
CASE 21: Omar Ouartilan
News Organ: Al-Khabar | Sector: Press | Date: 03/10/95 (Age: 36)
Description: Ouartilan, editor of Algeria's main Arabic language newspaper, was shot dead in the Belcourt district while on his way to work. He had previously refused to change his habits despite receiving death threats.
CASE 22: Saida Djebaili
News Organ: Al-Hayat al-Arabia | Sector: Press | Date: 16/10/95 (Age: 27)
Description: Djebaili was shot numerous times in the head with automatic weapons while driving through an Algiers suburb. Her driver, 23-year-old Lazhari Ahmed Mustapha, was also killed.
CASE 23: Hamid Mahiout
News Organ: Liberté | Sector: Press | Date: 02/12/95 (Age: 45)
Description: Mahiout was kidnapped, tortured, and beheaded along with his driver, Ahmed Benkherfallah, in the Sidi el Kebir suburb. Their bodies were dumped near their burnt-out car.
CASE 24: Khadidja Dahmani
News Organ: Echourouk el-Arabi | Sector: Press | Date: 05/12/95 (Age: 28)
Description: Dahmani was shot twice in the head by two fundamentalists near her home in the Baraki neighbourhood as she walked toward a bus station on her way to work.
ANGOLA
CASE 25: Ricardo De Mello
News Organ: Imparcial Fax | Sector: Press | Date: 18/01/95
Description: De Mello, director of the highly critical daily newsletter distributed by fax, was shot in the face on the stairs of his apartment in Luanda. The assassins left his money and papers, indicating a political assassination. His publication had heavily covered military and political corruption.
AZERBAIJAN
CASE 26: Adil Bunyatov
News Organ: Reuters | Sector: Television | Date: 17/03/95 (Age: 36)
Description: Bunyatov, an experienced frontline cameraman, was killed by a single bullet to the throat while filming a clash between government troops and a rebel police unit near his house outside Baku.
BOSNIA
CASE 27: John Schofield
News Organ: BBC | Sector: Radio | Date: 09/08/95 (Age: 29)
Description: Schofield, a reporter for The World Tonight, was hit in the neck by a bullet and died instantly. He and a BBC crew stepped out of their armoured vehicle to film burning villages when they came under small-arms fire from Croat soldiers.
CASE 28: Karim Zaimovic
News Organ: Dani | Sector: Press | Date: 13/08/95 (Age: 24)
Description: Zaimovic died in a hospital from wounds sustained from a grenade explosion on August 7 while out on a reporting assignment in Sarajevo.
CASE 29: Jadranko Bozanovic
News Organ: Radio Zavidovici | Sector: Radio | Date: 10/09/95 (Age: 36)
Description: Bozanovic, editor-in-chief and respected independent voice, was called out of his flat by unknown attackers and shot dead in front of his building.
BRAZIL
CASE 30: Zaqueu de Oliveira
News Organ: Gazeta de Barroso | Sector: Press | Date: 21/03/95
Description: De Oliveira was shot dead in Minas Gerais state by businessman Jose Carlos de Souza following a dispute regarding critical articles written about the businessman's wife.
CASE 31: Marcos Borges Ribeiro
News Organ: Independente | Sector: Press | Date: 01/05/95 (Age: 29)
Description: Ribeiro was shot four times at point-blank range inside his home in front of his wife. He had received death threats after his paper exposed human rights abuses by local police and city officials. A policeman later confessed to the crime.
CASE 32: Aristeu Guida da Silva
News Organ: A Gazeta de Sao Fidelis | Sector: Press | Date: 12/05/95
Description: Da Silva was shot dead by two hooded gunmen on motorbikes after publishing articles accusing the local municipal council president of corruption.
CASE 33: Reinaldo Coutinho da Silva
News Organ: Cachoeiras Journal | Sector: Press | Date: 29/08/95
Description: Da Silva was shot 14 times at close range with a .45 mm pistol while driving his car. The murder was linked to his reporting on local police corruption and environmental scandals.
BURUNDI
CASE 34: Vincent Francis
News Organ: Worldwide Television News (WTN) | Sector: Television | Date: 06/04/95
Description: Francis, WTN's Johannesburg bureau chief, was killed in an armed ambush by bandits 15 km from Bujumbura just before the nightly curfew. The attackers stole equipment, cash, and bags.
CASE 35: Pamphile Simbizi
News Organ: National Radio | Sector: Radio | Date: 07/06/95
Description: Simbizi, a respected journalist of the moderate Hutu movement and director of the radio's French section, was stabbed to death by unknown assailants in the hills of Gasenyi.
CANADA
CASE 36: Brian Smith
News Organ: CJOH-TV | Sector: Television | Date: 01/08/95 (Age: 54)
Description: Smith was shot in his station's parking lot by an individual with a history of mental instability who harboured a generic grudge against the media. The gunman waited outside the studio to shoot the first media worker he recognized. Smith died from massive brain injuries the following day.
COLOMBIA
CASE 37: Gomez Hurtado
News Organ: El Nuevo Siglo | Sector: Press | Date: 02/11/95
Description: Hurtado, a newspaper publisher, former presidential candidate, and university professor, was shot and killed by two unknown gunmen outside his university.
CASE 38: Gabriel Cruz Diaz
News Organ: Chinu Radio | Sector: Radio | Date: 10/11/95
Description: Diaz, a freelance radio journalist, was shot dead by two unidentified assailants right in front of his home.
CASE 39: Ernesto Acero Candena
News Organ: Unknown Economic Weekly | Sector: Press/Radio | Date: 12/12/95 (Age: 50)
Description: Candena was shot dead in the city of Armenia by two men on a motorcycle who fired four pistol rounds into his face.
GUATEMALA
CASE 40: Alberto Antoniotti Monje
News Organ: El Grafico | Sector: Press | Date: 29/01/95 (Age: 55)
Description: Monje, a political columnist and press attaché for the Attorney General, was killed outside his home. The assassination occurred shortly after the Attorney General's office leveled major corruption, drug, and murder charges against high-ranking military staff.
INDIA
CASE 41: Mushtaq Ali
News Organ: AFP / ANI | Sector: Television/Photography | Date: 07/09/95
Description: Ali, a photographer based in Kashmir, opened a parcel bomb delivered to the BBC office in Srinagar by a veiled woman. The package was addressed to colleague Yusuf Jameel, but Ali opened it when Jameel stepped away to answer the phone. Ali died of severe head and chest injuries three days later.
MEXICO
CASE 42: Ruperto Armenta
News Organ: El Regional | Sector: Press | Date: 05/02/95
Description: Armenta, the editor of the weekly publication, was beaten to death, and his body was discovered inside a water canal near the town of Guasave in Sinaloa state.
RUSSIA
CASE 43: Jochen Piest
News Organ: Stern | Sector: Press | Date: 10/01/95 (Age: 30)
Description: Piest, Moscow correspondent for the German weekly, was killed in Chervlyonaya, Chechnya. He was hit by three bullets during a surprise locomotive attack by a Chechen rebel on a Russian train station unit.
CASE 44: Valentin Yanus
News Organ: Channel 5 | Sector: Television | Date: 14/01/95 (Age: 56)
Description: Yanus, a regional television network cameraman, was shot and killed by a sniper in central Grozny while embedded with a paratroop unit near the Presidential Palace.
CASE 45: Viacheslav Rudnev
News Organ: Znamya / Vest | Sector: Press | Date: 17/02/95
Description: Rudnev was found unconscious with severe skull trauma in his apartment stairwell after stating his plans to expose police corruption in Kaluga. His papers were missing, and though police claimed he fell, colleagues remained highly suspicious.
CASE 46: Vladislav Listyev
News Organ: Ostankino (Public Russian TV) | Sector: Television | Date: 01/03/95 (Age: 38)
Description: Listyev, an iconic television journalist, was assassinated via a contract killing in his Moscow apartment stairwell. The murder was tied to his efforts to bypass intermediate brokers and consolidate all lucrative television advertising directly under the station's control.
CASE 47: Farkhad Kerimov
News Organ: Associated Press | Sector: Television | Date: 30/05/95 (Age: 47)
Description: Kerimov, a freelance cameraman who had previously reported from several post-Soviet conflict zones, was shot and killed under unclear circumstances inside Chechnya.
CASE 48: Natalya Alyakina
News Organ: Focus / RUFA | Sector: Press/Radio | Date: 17/06/95 (Age: 40)
Description: Alyakina was shot in the neck by a Russian soldier who fired into the back of her car after it passed a checkpoint near Budennovsk. A military tribunal ruled it an accident caused by a soldier stepping on an APC machine gun trigger, though ballistics experts challenged this claim.
CASE 49: Shamkhan Kagirov
News Organ: Rossiyskaya Gazeta | Sector: Press | Date: 13/12/95 (Age: 46)
Description: Kagirov was ambushed and shot dead along with three local policemen while travelling by car near Grozny to cover rural preparations for the upcoming local elections.
CASE 50: Vadim Alfereyev
News Organ: Segodnyashnyaya Gazeta | Sector: Press | Date: 27/12/95 (Age: 30)
Description: Alfereyev, a crime reporter tracking major regional economic fraud, was beaten to death with a metal rod inside his Krasnoyarsk apartment entry hall after receiving multiple threats.
SOMALIA
CASE 51: Marcello Palmisano
News Organ: RAI (Italy) | Sector: Television | Date: 09/02/95 (Age: 55)
Description: Palmisano, an Italian cameraman covering the UN troop withdrawal, was killed on the Mogadishu airport road. His car was ambushed due to a case of mistaken identity involving a local commercial corporate turf dispute ("the banana war") between rival fruit exporting operations.
SRI LANKA
CASE 52, 53 & 54: Edvin Weerasinghe, Karunaratne Saputhanthri, & Kirama Piyasoma
News Organ: Silumina Sinhala | Sector: Press | Date: 29/04/95
Description: These three print journalists were flying alongside military personnel to northern Sri Lanka to cover the ongoing ethnic conflict when their aircraft was targeted and shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
TAJIKISTAN
CASE 55: Muhiddin Alimpur
News Organ: BBC Persian Service | Sector: Radio | Date: 12/12/95
Description: Alimpur, a well-known radio reporter, was kidnapped by unidentified armed men in Dushanbe. His body was recovered the following morning near the Tajikistan State University.
TUNISIA
CASE 56: Jaouhari Sahnoun
News Organ: al-Fajr | Sector: Press | Date: 25/01/95 (Age: 42)
Description: Sahnoun, a human rights advocate and journalist serving a 15-year prison sentence, died in custody under obscure medical circumstances following a severe nervous breakdown and alleged systemic interrogation torture.
TURKEY
CASE 57: Bekir Kutmangil
News Organ: Yeni Gunaydin | Sector: Press | Date: 22/05/95 (Age: 39)
Description: Kutmangil, the owner of a nationalist, conservative daily, was shot dead in Istanbul's Mecidiyekoy business hub. The murder was orchestrated by a disgruntled former employee and bodyguard.
CASE 58: Sayfeddin Tepe
News Organ: Yeni Politika | Sector: Press | Date: 29/08/95 (Age: 27)
Description: Tepe, a correspondent covering pro-Kurdish issues, died while held at the Bitlis Security Directorate. Authorities alleged he hanged himself, but an autopsy and family testimonies revealed extensive torture trauma marks.
UGANDA
CASE 59: Hussein Njuki
News Organ: Assalaam | Sector: Press | Date: 25/08/95 (Age: 42)
Description: Njuki, editor of a Muslim weekly, was arrested after writing articles demanding the political removal of the President. He died three days later inside a Kampala police station, with conflicting accounts citing either a sudden heart attack or fatal blows by security agents.
UKRAINE
CASE 60: Vladimir Ivanov
News Organ: Slava Sevastopolya | Sector: Press | Date: 19/04/95
Description: Ivanov, an editor running an extensive print media campaign exposing the local Crimea mafia and oil terminal projects, died from injuries after a remote-controlled bomb hidden in a garbage bin detonated outside his home.
UNITED KINGDOM
CASE 61: Tarsem Singh Purewal
News Organ: Des Pardes | Sector: Press | Date: 27/01/95
Description: Purewal, owner and editor of Britain's top-selling Punjabi-language weekly, was shot dead outside his office in Southall, London. His publication was known for unearthing community frauds and covering the Punjab independence movement.
PART II: OTHER MEDIA STAFF KILLED (MSK)
CASE 1 [Algeria] — Mahmoud Aouarhoun: A transmission operator with the official news agency APS since 1977; shot dead near his home in Baraki.
CASE 2 [Algeria] — Radja Brahimi: A television technician for ENTV; shot dead alongside her journalist husband, Said, in their car by fundamentalists.
CASE 3 [Algeria] — Ahmed Khalfoun: Financial resources director for APS; targeted and shot dead near his residence in Bir Khadem.
CASE 4 [Algeria] — Abdelwahab Sadaoui: Commercial director for the daily Al Chaab; found dead after being abducted from his family home.
CASE 5 [Algeria] — Abdelkarim Bendaoud: An ENTV technician; died from multiple gunshot wounds inflicted by attackers waiting outside his home.
CASE 6 [Algeria] — Mohamed Belkacem: Production department section head at ENTV; dragged from his car and killed in the Baraki district.
PART III: ACCIDENTAL DEATHS ON ASSIGNMENT
CASE 1 & 2 [Mexico] — Gilberto Medina & Ricardo Pena: This award-winning reporter and cameraman duo for Televisa died alongside their pilot when their helicopter crashed into a warehouse wall in Mexico City, exploding upon impact.
PART IV: CASES UNDER INVESTIGATION (UI/M)
CASE 1 [Angola] — Adalerto Costa: A reporter for state-owned Radio Luanda; shot five times inside his home, though the exact motive remains unresolved between local crime or a personal feud.
CASE 2 [Dominican Republic] — Juan Carlos Vasquez: An award-winning sports journalist; shot in the head by an off-duty policeman during a minor traffic accident argument, which was caught on video.
CASE 3 [Rwanda] — Manasse Mugabo: A UNAMIR radio station journalist who went missing after leaving his home to travel to Uganda; no physical records of a border crossing were found.
CASE 4 [Thailand] — Jeremy Taylor: An Australian freelance photographer; found dead from a single bullet wound to the chest on a street in central Bangkok near the Burmese Embassy.
