THIS PAGE IS DEDICATED TO THE FIGHT AGAINST IMPUNITY. YOU WILL FIND THE LATEST NEWS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES ON PROSECUTIONS FOLLOWING MURDERS OR ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS 



THANK YOU FOR HELPING US TO TRACE ALL CASES: IF YOU ARE AWARE OF AN ONGOING CASE CONCERNING A JOURNALIST, PLEASE SEND US AN EMAIL TO: pressemblem@bluewin.ch

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02.11.2023. International Day to End Impunity - 30 cases of impunity for murders on journalists in Europe (Council of Europe)

See: https://human-rights-channel.coe.int/end-impunity-for-crimes-against-journalists-en.html

Also consult:https://cpj.org/reports/2023/10/haiti-joins-list-of-countries-where-killers-of-journalists-most-likely-to-go-unpunished/

https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/category/press-releases/article/israel-un-concludes-that-idf-intentionally-or-recklessly-killed-palestinian-journalist-shireen-abu-akleh

https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/international-day-end-impunity-crimes-against-journalists-0

15.11.2022. USA/ISRAEL. Shireen Abu Akleh’s family welcome news of US investigation (with Al Jazeera)

The family of Shireen Abu Akleh say they are “encouraged” by the United States announcing an investigation into the Palestinian American Al Jazeera correspondent’s killing in May.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the family said the US decision, first reported on Monday, was necessary considering Abu Akleh’s citizenship and the fact that she was killed “by a foreign military”.

Israeli forces shot and killed Abu Akleh, 51, in the northern occupied West Bank town of Jenin where she was reporting on an Israeli raid.

Video footage, several witnesses and multiple investigations by independent media outlets showed there were no armed Palestinians in the area where Abu Akleh and other journalists were standing before Israeli soldiers started firing at them, despite initial Israeli claims that Abu Akleh may have been shot in crossfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters.

Israel eventually admitted in September that one of its soldiers likely killed Abu Akleh, but said that no criminal investigation would be conducted.

The US had initially resisted attempts to start an investigation into Abu Akleh’s killing, arguing that Israel was able to conduct its own investigation.

But the US Department of Justice has now informed its counterpart in Israel that the FBI is opening a probe into the incident, according to a report by Axios on Monday.

Details about the investigation are unclear and a justice department spokesperson declined to comment.

The Israeli government has responded by criticising the US and insisting it will not cooperate with the investigation.

“The decision taken by the US Justice Department to conduct an investigation into the tragic passing of Shireen Abu Akleh, is a mistake,” said Benny Gantz, Israel’s outgoing defence minister.

Accountability

In their statement, Abu Akleh’s family said they were “ready to support” the investigation, and added that they hoped it would be “truly independent” and “[follow] the evidence where it leads … toward accountability”.

The family have conducted an international campaign over the six months since the killing of the veteran reporter, who was one of the biggest names in Arab journalism.

That campaign has involved meetings with US government officials, an official complaint at the International Criminal Court, and a meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Monday, Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer and former justice department official, said the decision to launch an FBI investigation indicates that the US has “credible evidence” to believe an assassination was committed.

Fein added that the US could put pressure on Israel in various ways to get it to cooperate, including military aid and regional geopolitics.

“Those kinds of levers can change the minds of the Israelis,” Fein said.

02.11.2022. Killing with Impunity - Vast majority of journalists' murederes go free (CPJ)

In nearly 80% of the 263 cases of journalists murdered in retaliation for their work globally over the past decade, the perpetrators have faced no punishment. CPJ’s 2022 Global Impunity Index, which lists countries where the killers of journalists go free, found that Somalia remains the worst offender on the index for the eighth straight year. Syria, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, respectively, round out the top five countries on the index, which covers the period September 1, 2012, to August 31, 2022. Countries like Mexico, with 28 unsolved journalist murders in the past 10 years, the Philippines, and Brazil also continue to fall short in prosecuting murderers of journalists as violence against the press soars and national protection mechanisms prove ineffective.

“We’ve seen a dramatic rise in the abusive tactics used to silence journalists, from spyware technology to spurious legal charges,” said CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg. “On top of these mounting threats, journalists are being murdered in retaliation for their work with near total impunity. This lack of justice empowers perpetrators to continue silencing the press.”

CPJ’s 2022 index, published the day before the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists on November 2, coincides with the 10-year anniversary of the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.



Index table | Methodology | Database: All journalists murdered for their work | Download the PDF | Video | Press release

28.10.2022. México: condenaron a tres personas por el asesinato de Lourdes Maldonado (FIP)

El autor material y dos cómplices que habían sido detenidos en febrero de este año fueron condenados tras confesar su participación en el asesinato de la periodista, ocurrido en Tijuana el 23 de enero pasado.

En una audiencia celebrada ayer, se sentenció a Guillermo Julián Castro, autor material del asesinato de la periodista Lourdes Maldonado, a 24 años en prisión. Sus acompañantes, Kevin Alberto Villarino y Erick Eduardo Contreras recibieron una condena de 20 años. Los tres habían sido capturados en febrero y admitieron haber cometido el crimen tras haber recibido cinco mil dólares como pago. Si bien los responsables intelectuales no han sido identificados aun, las primeras investigaciones apuntan a un grupo perteneciente al Cártel de los Arellano Félix que habría ordenado el ataque en represalia por el trabajo periodístico de la comunicadora. Ese mismo grupo también estaría vinculado al asesinato del fotoperiodista Margarito Martínez, quien murió pocos días antes del ataque a Maldonado.

Maldonado se dedicaba desde el año 2000 al periodismo independiente. Se desempeñó en las televisoras Primer Sistema de Noticias (PSN), Televisa Tijuana y el Canal de Noticias de Rosarito, en el que condujo su programa titulado “Brebaje”. Pocos días antes de su muerte, había ganado un litigio de varios años contra PSN por un despido injustificado, motivo por el cual en 2019 había denunciado al ex gobernador de Baja California Jaime Bonilla, dueño del medio, en una de las conferencias mañaneras del presidente mexicano Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

La Federación Internacional de Periodistas celebra que se haya sentenciado a los autores de este crimen, pero reclama que se avance en la captura y enjuiciamiento de todos los responsables intelectuales que ordenaron y planificaron el asesinato de Lourdes Maldonado. En un país que en menos de un año registra 15 asesinatos de periodistas, es fundamental que se combata la impunidad en todos los niveles de responsabilidad, dado que la misma alcanza la alarmante tasa 95%. 

14.10.2022.MALTA. Brothers sentenced to 40 years in prison for murdering Maltese journalist Caruana Galizia (news agencies)

Two brothers were on Friday jailed for 40 years each for the car bomb murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who uncovered corruption in high places and whose killing sparked an international furore and forced the resignation of the prime minister.

Caruana Galizia, 53, was one of Malta's most prominent public figures. Once described as a "one-woman WikiLeaks", she was a vocal critic of the country's political elite in her blog, accusing them of cronyism and corruption.

The sentences handed down to George and Alfred Degiorgio came on the first day of their trial -- and nearly five years to the day that she was murdered.

Friday's dramatic proceedings had seen the pair plead not guilty before a judge in the morning, before changing their pleas hours later.

"Today's judgement is another important step towards justice for the Caruana Galizia family," Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Twitter.

"We remain determined to see full justice delivered for the family and for Malta."

In a statement released by his office, he added: "In parallel, the government will continue implementing important reforms to strengthen further the rule of law principles and democracy in Malta."

'Investigate your friends'

The much-delayed trial of the brothers -- charged with homicide, causing a fatal explosion and criminal conspiracy, among other crimes -- began Friday with a dramatic outburst from defendant George Degiorgio.

"Don't you know who killed Daphne?" Degiorgio called to the prosecution upon entering court.

"Your friends, those you were shoulder to shoulder with... Go investigate them!"

A third hitman, Vincent Muscat, had already pleaded guilty last year and was jailed for 15 years.

Judge Edwina Grima had refused a defence request to suspend the trial which had been based on what they said had been the lack of time to prepare.

The Degiorgio brothers said last year they were prepared to implicate a former government minister in exchange for a pardon, which was not granted.

George Degiorgio had confessed to the crime during an interview from jail in July, calling it "just business".

But early Friday, he repeated his previously stated not guilty plea before the court.

His brother Alfred, seated in a wheelchair, said "I have nothing to say," which the court recorded as a not guilty plea.

Within hours, however, both had changed their pleas to guilty.

Joseph Muscat resigned as prime minister over the affair in January 2020, following mass protests over his perceived efforts to protect friends and allies from the investigation.

A 2021 public inquiry into Caruana Galizia's murder found the state should bear responsibility for her death, by creating a "climate of impunity" for those who wanted to silence her.

Still awaiting trial is wealthy Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech, considered by prosecutors to be the alleged mastermind of the murder.



Sunday will mark the fifth anniversary of Caruana Galizia's death.

24.06.2022. ISRAEL/PALESTINE. Shireen Abu Aqleh killed by ‘seemingly well-aimed’ Israeli bullet, UN says

The UN has said its investigations have found that the shot that killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh on 11 May was fired by Israeli forces.

The Palestinian-American journalist, who was wearing a vest and helmet marked “press”, was killed while covering an Israeli army operation in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.

“We find that the shots that killed Abu Aqleh came from Israeli security forces,” the UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva. “It is deeply disturbing that Israeli authorities have not conducted a criminal investigation.”

She said: “We at the UN human rights office have concluded our independent monitoring into the incident. The shots that killed Abu Aqleh and injured her colleague Ali Samodi came from Israeli security forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians, as initially claimed by Israeli authorities.”

She added that the information came from the Israeli military and the Palestinian attorney general. “We have found no information suggesting that there was activity by armed Palestinians in the immediate vicinity of the journalists,” Shamdasani said.

In line with its human rights monitoring methodology, the UN human rights office inspected photo, video and audio material, visited the scene, consulted experts, reviewed official communications and interviewed witnesses.

The findings showed that seven journalists arrived at the western entrance of the Jenin refugee camp soon after 6am. At about 6.30am, as four of the journalists turned into a particular street, “several single, seemingly well-aimed bullets were fired towards them from the direction of the Israeli security forces. One single bullet injured Ali Samodi in the shoulder; another single bullet hit Abu Aqleh in the head and killed her instantly.”

The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, has urged Israel to open a criminal investigation into Abu Aqleh’s killing and into all other killings by Israeli forces in the West Bank and in the context of law enforcement operations in Gaza.

In a statement responding to Shamdasani’s briefing, the Israel Defence Forces insisted there had been an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen.



“Ever since the incident, the IDF has been investigating and reviewing the circumstances of Ms Abu Aqleh’s death,” the statement said. “The IDF investigation clearly concludes that Ms Abu Aqleh was not intentionally shot by an IDF soldier and that it is not possible to determine whether she was killed by a Palestinian gunman shooting indiscriminately in her area or inadvertently by an IDF soldier.”

23.06.2022. UKRAINE. Following a visit to Ukraine from 24 May to 3 June to investigate Ukrainian photo-journalist Maks Levin’s death, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is releasing a report with information and evidence indicating that Levin and his friend and bodyguard were executed by Russian soldiers in a forest near Kyiv on 13 March, possibly after being interrogated and even tortured.

Read more on: https://rsf.org/en/exclusive-rsf-investigation-death-maks-levin-information-and-evidence-collected-indicates

29.03.2022. UKRAINE. Press Emblem Campaign welcomes the inquiry on the killing of Pierre Zakrzewski (with the Irish Times)

Gardaí are assisting their French colleagues in an investigation into the death in Ukraine of journalist Pierre Zakrzewski whose funeral takes place on Tuesday.

Mr Zakrzewski, who was from Leopardstown in south Dublin, was killed when his car was hit by Russian shelling outside Kyiv on March 14th. He was working as a cameraman for the American channel Fox News.

His colleague, producer Oleksandra Kuvshynova, was also killed and Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall was severely injured.

Mr Zakrzewski (55) will be buried following a funeral Mass at 10am on Tuesday morning. His body was returned to his family in Dublin last week.

A postmortem has taken place in Ireland and the results are due to be shared with French prosecutors.

The journalist held both Irish and French citizenship. The investigation into his death is being led by France with the Garda providing a supporting role. For now this support is likely to be confined to the sharing of documents, including those related to the postmortem.

French investigation

Unlike in Ireland, French authorities have the power to investigate and prosecute the deaths of its citizens abroad, as was the case in the investigation into the 1996 murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier in Cork.

The French investigation is being led by the national counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office known as PNAT and the central office for the fight against crimes against humanity, genocides and war crimes (OCLCH), which is a division of the French National Police.

The matter is being treated as a war crimes investigation. PNAT has said the investigation will examine whether Mr Zakrzewski was the victim of a “wilful attack on the life of a person protected by international law” and a “deliberate attack against a civilian who does not participate directly in the hostilities”.

Five journalists, two from Ukraine and three from overseas, have been killed in Ukraine since the war started over a month ago.

Direct testimony

An inquest is due to be held in Ireland into Mr Zakrzewski’s death but a date has yet to be set.

The coroner may seek to hear evidence from people who witnessed his killing or who were in Ukraine at the time, either from direct testimony in person or via statements.

It is not unusual for Irish coroners to hold inquests into the deaths of Irish citizens abroad in unnatural circumstances, though it can be difficult to get statements from individuals abroad.

“An Garda Síochána is currently liaising with French authorities who have opened an investigation into possible war crimes as a result of the death of Mr Pierre Zakrzewski,” a Garda spokesman said.

The journalist was born to a French mother and Polish father and grew up in south Dublin where he attended St Conleth’s College and UCD.



He was married to a former BBC journalist and covered conflicts in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

24.03.2022. Afghanistan: Parents of journalist killed by Taliban file complaint with the ICC

On March 22, the parents of Danish Siddiqui filed an official complaint with the ICC against Taliban leaders and high-level commanders, including Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the acting prime minister of Afghanistan, and Abdul Ghani Baradar, the country’s acting first deputy minister. 

In a statement released by the Avi Singh, the family’s lawyer, Siddiqui’s parents said they wanted the ICC to investigate the killing and bring those responsible to justice. 

“Danish [was] murdered by the Taliban for simply carrying out his journalistic duties. He was subjected to barbaric levels of torture and mutilation while in their custody,” Siddiqui’s mother, Shahida Akhtar said in a statement. 

Siddiqui was killed while covering a battle between Taliban militants and Afghan security forces in the Kandahar province on July 16, 2021. Siddiqui was a chief photographer for Reuters in India and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for his images of the Myanmar Rohingya crisis. 

In August 2021, Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, denied the group’s involvement in the killing and argued that the news reports were false. In an online press conference held on March 22 however, the family’s lawyer refuted this claim. 

“The Taliban targeted and killed Danish because he was a journalist and an Indian. That is an international crime. In the absence of rule of law in Afghanistan, the ICC has jurisdiction to investigate and try the perpetrators of Danish’s murder,” Singh said.

Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) welcomes Siddiqui’s parents’ search for justice and urges the ICC to expedite the investigation.

20.12.2021. Nepal: Three sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Dekendra Raj Thapa (FNJ/IFJ)

Dailekh District Court has sentenced three people convicted of the murder of Dailekh based journalist, Dekendra Raj Thapa, to life imprisonment. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Nepal affiliate, the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) welcome the court’s order and urge Nepali authorities to expedite the justice process of other pending cases.

On December 12, the Dailekh court sentenced Bam Bahadur Khadka (aka. Arun), Keshav Khadka and Bam Bahadur Khadka to life imprisonment, or 20 years, for the murder of journalist Dekendra Raj Thapa 17 years ago. District Judge Dandapani Lamichhane also jailed Bhakti Ram Lamichhane for three years, for assisting the murderers in concealing the journalist’s body.

Killed journalists Dekendra Thapa, a Dailekh district reporter for state broadcaster Radio Nepal, was kidnapped on August 11, 2004, by cadres of the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist (CPN-M). He was tortured and buried alive in Naumule of the Dailekh district 45 days after his kidnapping.

The investigation into Thapa’s death did not begin until the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (PCA) by the Nepal government and the then rebel CPN-M in November 21, 2006. Following continuous advocacy by the FNJ, Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), Thapa’s body was exhumed for DNA testing from Naumule Rural Municipality on July 28, 2008, despite opposition from CPN-M.

On August 28, 2008, Thapa’s wife Laxmi Thapa lodged a First Information Report (FIR) at Dailekh police station seeking justice for the murder of her husband. The case was halted for a few days in January, 2013, after then Attorney General, Mukti Pradhan, instructed local police and prosecutors not to take the case forward. The case was recommenced on January 16, 2013, when the Supreme Court ordered the then Prime Minister, Baburam Bhattarai, and then Attorney General Pradhan not to intervene the matter.

On December 7, 2014, the Dailekh District Court ordered the arrest of nine suspects for their involvement in Thapa’s murder. Six of the nine accused, Laxi Ram Gharti Magar, Bir Bahadur KC, Nirak Bahadur Gharti Magar, Harilal Pun Magar and Jay Bahadur Shahi,had already been in custody since January 1, 2013, while the remaining three absconded.

More than 35 journalists were killed during Nepal’s 10 yearlong Maoist insurgency period, between 1996 and 2006.

FNJ president, Bipul Pokhrel, said: "FNJ is relieved to hear that journalist Dekendra Thapa's murderers have been held accountable for their crime. This judgement is an important step towards ending impunity on crime against journalists. We hope it will set a clear precedent for the arbitration of crimes perpetrated against journalists.” 

The IFJ said: “The court’s verdict in Thapa’s case is a promising step towards addressing the long-entrenched issue of impunity for crimes against journalists in Nepal. The IFJ urges the Nepali authorities to continue their investigations and make much needed progress with other cases that have remained unresolved for so long.”

10.12.2021. México: el Estado pide disculpas por el caso de un periodista desaparecido (FIP)

En la víspera del Día Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, las autoridades mexicanas reconocieron su responsabilidad en la desaparición y falta de justicia del periodista Alfredo Jiménez Mota, de quien se desconoce su paradero desde el 2 de abril de 2005. La Federación Internacional de Periodistas (FIP) acompaña a los familiares del reportero que continúan su reclamo de justicia y el esclarecimiento del caso.

Por primera vez en la historia de México, se llevó adelante la firma de un Acuerdo de Solución Amistosa y Acto Público de Reconocimiento de Responsabilidad entre el Estado Mexicano y las víctimas indirectas de la desaparición forzada del periodista Alfredo Jiménez Mota. Este acto contó con la presencia de la familia del comunicador, el subsecretario de Derechos Humanos Alejandro Encinas en representación del gobierno federal, el gobernador de Sonora Alfonso Durazo y el presidente municipal de Empalante Luis Fuentes Aguilar. De esta manera, los tres niveles de gobierno estuvieron presentes para realizar el pedido público de disculpas.

Jiménez Mota era oriundo de Empalante, en el estado de Sonora. Luego de terminar sus estudios en la Universidad Autónoma de Occidente, realizó sus primeros trabajos como periodista en Culiacán, Sinaloa. Tiempo después regresó a su estado natal y comenzó a escribir para el periódico El Imparcial. Allí investigó al crimen organizado y sus vínculos con el poder político. El 2 de abril de 2005, durante el sexenio del expresidente Vicente Fox, desapareció sin dejar rastros y al día de hoy no se pudieron encontrar sus restos y el caso continúa sin ser esclarecido. Alfredo tenía 25 años.

Además del pedido público de disculpas, el acuerdo firmado ayer establece una serie de medidas de reparación, memoria y justicia. Los tres puntos más importantes son: reparación integral a los familiares de la víctima, tanto por daños materiales como morales; y la aplicación de medidas de No Repetición y Justicia. En lo que respecta a la reparación material, se aplicará una indemnización para la familia. La Reparación Moral consiste en ponderar el nombre de la víctima y su legado a futuro (en este caso se pide que se pavimente una calle que llevará el nombre de Alfredo). Las medidas de no repetición y justicia incluyen instancias de formación para el personal del ministerio público y la continuidad de búsqueda del esclarecimiento del caso y el castigo a los culpables.

El Sindicato Nacional de Redactores de la Prensa (SNRP), organización afiliada, se refirió a lo sucedido: “El SNRP valora positivamente la disculpa pública y de perdón hecha por el Estado mexicano por la desaparición del periodista Alfredo Jiménez Mota. La organización gremial nacional de periodistas juzga, al mismo tiempo, que el gesto hecho por el Subsecretario de Derechos Humanos de la Secretaría de Gobernación, Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez, es aún insuficiente para revertir el clima de hostilidad y grave riesgo en el que viven cotidianamente los trabajadores de la comunicación en México. El SNRP, en el marco del Día de los Derechos Humanos, insta al gobierno mexicano a qué más allá de acuerdos de solución amistosa, instrumente mecanismos, decisiones y acciones jurídicas y políticas, en los diferentes niveles y órdenes de gobierno, que salvaguarden la vida y el trabajo de los profesionales de los medios de comunicación del país”.

La Federación Internacional de Periodistas celebra este reconocimiento de responsabilidad que asume el Estado mexicano, ya que establece un antecedente positivo en la búsqueda de justicia y de la eliminación de la impunidad en los asesinatos y desapariciones de comunicadorxs, que en el país alcanza el 95%. También apoya a la familia en el pedido de justicia y exige a los distintos poderes del Estado que instrumenten las medidas necesarias para avanzar en la resolución del caso, tal como lo manifiesta el SNRP. Sin justicia, sin libertad de expresión y sin protección a los derechos humanos no puede haber democracia.

30.10.2021. Killers of journalists still get away with murder (CPJ)

By Jennifer Dunham/CPJ Deputy Editorial Director

Published October 28, 2021

Somalia remains the world’s worst country for unsolved killings of journalists, according to CPJ’s annual Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where members of the press are singled out for murder and the perpetrators go free.

The index showed little change from a year earlier, with Syria, Iraq, and South Sudan, in that order, again coming in behind Somalia to occupy the worst four spots on the list, as conflict, political instability, and weak judicial mechanisms perpetuate a cycle of violence against journalists.

However, the latest data – which covers the period September 1, 2011, to August 31, 2021 – does not fully reflect the increased danger facing journalists in Afghanistan. Afghanistan ranked fifth, as it had in the previous two years. While the country’s spot on the index did not change, the situation on the ground for reporters deteriorated dramatically in 2021 as the Taliban took control in mid-August amid the withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces and the flight of President Ashraf Ghani. Hundreds of journalists fled the country because they feared the Taliban’s brutal record on press freedom and what its rule could mean for journalist safety.

Justice for the 17 journalists murdered in Afghanistan in the 10-year index period was already elusive, and impunity for killers there may now become as entrenched as it is in Somalia and other nations atop the index. Afghanistan’s judicial system is collapsing, with reports from Afghanistan saying that courts are closed, lawyers are fleeing the country, and female judges have been forced into hiding. In addition, Taliban leaders appear even less likely than Afghanistan’s previous government to respond to local and international calls to end the country’s culture of impunity for crimes against journalists.

Promises made by the Taliban’s leadership to protect press freedom rang hollow within days of the takeover as its fighters carried out scores of violations against media workers, including beatings and arbitrary detentions. And given that at least two of the five journalists murdered in 2020 – Radio Azadi reporter Elyas Dayee and freelancer Rahmatullah Nikzad – had received threats from the Taliban prior to their deaths, there seems little chance that Afghanistan’s new Taliban government will seek out the killers. 

Afghan journalists also remain at risk of being targeted by Islamic State militants. The group claimed responsibility for an April 2018 suicide bomb attack targeting the media that killed at least nine journalists, as well as the retaliatory murders of journalists such as Malalai Maiwand in late 2020. In the weeks after the Taliban’s August 2021 takeover, ISIS-K, the Islamic State’s local affiliate, said it was behind a series of deadly attacks – including one at Kabul airport and others targeting the Taliban.

During the 10-year index period – a tumultuous time that includes Syria’s civil war, widespread protests against Arab governments, and attacks against media workers by extremist groups and organized crime syndicates – 278 journalists were murdered for their work worldwide. In 226 of those cases, or 81%, CPJ recorded complete impunity, meaning no one has been convicted in connection with the crime. For the previous index period (September 1, 2010, to August 31, 2020), CPJ found that 83% of journalist murders were unsolved, continuing a recent trend of incremental progress in solving cases. In “The Road to Justice,” a 2014 examination of the causes of impunity in journalist murders and possible solutions, CPJ found that the killers went free in nine out of 10 cases between 2004 and 2013.

30.07.2021. MALTA. State should 'shoulder responsibility' for Daphne assassination - inquiry

by the Times of Malta

An inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has said the state should shoulder responsbility for her death.

In a 437-page report, the inquiry concluded that a culture of impunity was created from the highest echelons of power within Castille.

It singled out former prime minister Joseph Muscat for enabling this culture of impunity and found his entire cabinet collectively responsible for their inaction in the lead up to the assassination.

"The state should shoulder responsibility for the assassination," retired judge Michael Mallia, former chief justice Joseph Said Pullicino and Madam Justice Abigail Lofaro said in their report.

"It created an atmosphere of impunity, generated from the highest echelons of the administration inside Castille, the tentacles of which then spread to other institutions, such as the police and regulatory authorities, leading to a collapse in the rule of law".

While the inquiry did not find proof of government involvement in the assassination, it created a “favourable climate” for anyone seeking to eliminate her to do so with the minimum of consequences.

According to the conclusions, the state failed to recognise the real and immediate risks to Caruana Galizia’s life. It also failed to take reasonable steps to avoid these risks.

The board said all the evidence heard throughout the inquiry led to a conviction that Caruana Galizia's assassination was either intrinsically or directly linked to her investigative work.

Confrontation escalated until assassination 

This led to a situation where a need was felt to push back at the negative impact the journalist’s writing had on the government, so as not to endanger plans put in place by those close seeking to leverage their connections with top officials.

This direct confrontation between Caruana Galizia and the government reached its peak with the publication of the Panama Papers in 2016 and the circumstances surrounding the setting up of 17 Black.

It was obvious, the board said, that the journalist had extremely sensitive information that could have ruined the plans of big business as well as the stability of the government.

The board described it as a “confrontation that carried on escalating until the moment she was assassinated”.

The board noted that this confrontation was so strong that soon after the 2013 election, the government started regarding Caruana Galizia as “the only opposition in the country”, as described by former prime minister Joseph Muscat.

The direct confrontation between the government and Caruana Galizia was further exacerbated by the fact that her writings were substantially accurate and served as an open source of information, even for the police.

Politicians reacted to this confrontation through a sustained campaign of personal attacks, hate, incidents of verbal abuse, as well as turning the screw on the journalist’s finances.

“It can never be acceptable for entities of the state to involve themselves or promote such happenings. The state has an obligation to defend in every possible way the lives of journalists, the fundamental right to free speech, even when a journalist expresses tough opinions against the government of the day.

Orchestrated plan to neutralize journalist

The “obvious” need to protect Caruana Galizia, particularly after the publication of the Panama Papers, was apparently not obvious to the police commissioner, the security services and other authorities, the board concluded. 

It slammed the “lethargic inactivity” of the institutions over their failure to investigate serious allegations of criminal wrongdoing, including by those in government, as being “inexplicable and condemnable. 

“The explanation for this cannot be simple incompetence or indifference.”

The inquiry said it could not help but conclude there was an orchestrated plan to neutralise the investigative journalism carried out by Caruana Galizia. 

“This was done to first and foremost limit the damage to those in power, as well as limit the damage of those seeking to advance projects for their own personal gain," it said.

Killer felt protected

This plan could only succeed because it was centrally organised by the prime minister’s office, and it led to Caruana Galizia’s “total isolation”, at a time when she was also in the crosshairs of then opposition leader Adrian Delia. 

This isolation, coupled with the culture of impunity and the “inactivity” of institutions, created a climate of risk for the journalist. 

“A climate in which, those who wished to and managed to eliminate her found the perfect occasion to do. Whoever planned and carried out the assassination did so in the knowledge they would be protected by those who had an interest in silencing the journalist.”

The fact that those implicated in wrongdoing referred to the prime minister and his chief of staff as “No-1”, “The old man”, “the king” is in itself a demonstration of how these people felt protected thanks to the culture of impunity, the board said.

Politicians' links with big business

The inquiry said steps must be taken to rein in and regulate the links between politicians and big business. 

A “business-friendly approach”, such as that adopted by the Labour government in 2013, can be positive, so long as it is not abused, the board said.

It highlighted how public administration is obliged to safeguard the rule of law and should never allow a lust for money and profits by businessmen or public officials to supersede good governance. 

The inquiry found “abundant proof” of the cosy relationship between certain government officials and big business, particularly those interested in promoting large-scale projects.

This proximity was a determining factor behind the majority of these projects ending up under the scrutiny of the auditor-general and magisterial inquiries.

These investigations had found significant irregularities, to the point where there was a possibility that the process leading to their award rendered the contracts null, the board said, in a likely reference to the VGH hospitals contract.

Big business seized the opportunity to forge ahead with their projects with minimal administrative oversight, and through the “manipulation” of top officials.

The inquiry specifically mentioned the chief of staff role, occupied at the time by prime minister Joseph Muscat’s right-hand man Keith Schembri, as being “crucial” in understanding how these intimate links between big business and government were created.

Zooming in on Caruana Galizia’s writing, the board said the assassinated journalist was critical of these administrative failures and the intimacy between big business and government.

Two centres of power

The board said these links had created two centres of power, a political one and an economic one. “It was inevitable that as soon as a journalist mounted a full-frontal and credible attack on these two centres of power, it led to a direct confrontation with those in power who were involved.

The board said evidence conclusively showed how certain people in power as well as in business had a common interest in neutralising the impact of the assassinated journalist’s writing. 

This does not mean, as this stage, that proof exists of government involvement in the assassination, the board said. 

However, the fact remains that the demonisation of Caruana Galizia and the campaign against her, within the culture of impunity created, led to a “favourable climate” for anyone seeking to eliminate her to do so with the minimum of consequences.

“The fact remains that in the board’s opinion, Daphne Caruana Galizia’s writing about the intimacy between big business and politics led to her assassination”, the inquiry said.



The board said it took this as the departure point for the public inquiry, and at no point was it contested by any of the witnesses heard.

The Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry board has issued a comprehensive list of recommendations. Here are the key recommendations that the PEC fully supports:

The Daphne Caruana Galizia family

• The government should take every appropriate step to ensure that the state reconciles with the family.
• The government should start the process of healing the deep and traumatic wounds the family and the country have suffered.

Lobbying, big business and governance

• Legal amendments to deter the use of political or financial power to escape justice.
• Laws should be introduced to ensure absolute transparency and accountability in the relationship between government and big business.
• The regulation of lobbying. All communication between politicians and business should be carried out through official channels.
• The introduction of unexplained wealth orders.
• Ensure that the recommendations by the Venice Commission, Greco, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament to strengthen good governance are implemented.

Public officials

• A law criminalising obstruction of justice by government officials.
• A specific abuse of office law for public officials.

The media and right to information

• The setting up of a committee of experts to examine the state of journalism in Malta.
• The introduction of a legal framework to protect journalists and ensure the profession is self-regulated.
• Ensure government advertising in the media is distributed fairly.
• A reform of the freedom of information act to limit the culture of confidentiality and secrecy under the pretext of privacy and commercial sensitivity.
• Amendments to constitutional provisions establishing the Broadcasting Authority, with the board noting that the public broadcaster failed in its duty to impartial reporting when it did not adequately report on serious allegations of corruption.
• A code of ethics for journalists should be established.

The protection of journalists

• An independent commissioner for journalism should be created to implement laws and regulations designed to protect the freedom of the media, the safety of journalists, and the right to information.
• A constitutional amendment to recognise the right of an individual to receive information from the state and public administration, and the obligation to provide such information.
• A constitutional amendment to recognise that journalism is one of the pillars of a democratic society and that the state must guarantee and protect it.
• The establishment of a specific police unit to identify threats to journalists.
• The police must give weight to a journalist’s investigative work, and promptly investigate any allegations.

15.06.2021. PEC welcomes new trial: Millionaire to be retried over murder of Slovak journalist Ján Kuciak

Slovakia’s supreme court has overturned the acquittals of a businessman and his suspected accomplice for the murder of a journalist in a case that triggered mass protests and toppled the country’s previous government.

Well-connected multimillionaire Marián Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová will now face a new trial for the murder of Ján Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kušnírová, who were killed in their home in 2018.

“The court found that the specialised criminal court made several mistakes in the course of the trial, therefore it returns the case to the lower court,” judge Peter Paluda said.

“I am glad that justice will finally prevail. I believe that a new verdict will be more just,” Kuciak’s father, Jozef, said after the ruling.

The victims, both 27, were shot dead at their home outside Bratislava after Kuciak wrote several stories about the influential entrepreneur with ties to senior government politicians, alleging graft and shady dealings.

Slovak president Zuzana Čaputová said in a statement: “The suffering of parents and relatives of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová does not end after today’s decision of the supreme court, but they are again one step closer to justice.

“The supreme court has taken a very important step today to restore confidence in the judiciary,” she said.

Prosecutors argued that Kočner ordered Kuciak’s murder in revenge for articles accusing him of various property crimes.

In a statement in court in July last year, Kočner denied murder.

Kočner has separately been sentenced to 19 years in an unconnected fraud case.

Of the five original suspects, two confessed and have already been sentenced, including the gunman.

Ex-soldier and contract killer Miroslav Marček received 23 years in April 2020 for killing the couple.

The double murder plunged the country of 5.4 million people into crisis and triggered the largest demonstrations seen since the fall of communism.

The prime minister, Robert Fico, was forced to resign and replaced by his populist leftwing Smer-SD party deputy, Peter Pellegrini.



Parliamentary elections last year were won by the opposition, paving the way for a new centre-right, anti-graft government.

03.05.2021. SYRIA. 709 Journalists and Media Workers Have Been Killed Since March 2011, Including 52 Due to Torture (Syrian Network for Human Rights)

Paris – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has issued its annual report the most notable violations against media workers in Syria for World Press Freedom Day, noting that 709 journalists and media workers have been killed since March 2011, including 52 due to torture.
 
The 20-page report notes that many Syrian activists have taken it upon themselves to try to compensate for the regime’s banning of Arab and international media in Syria, to report news and the reality of events taking place, in light of the one party and one president dominating every aspect of public and private media and journalism work, with the regime further increasing its already brutal repression to become even more repressive since the outbreak of the popular uprising for democracy in Syria in March 2011, particularly targeting media workers and photographers, as well as expelling and banning all independent media. The report adds that these journalists’ and photojournalists’ camera lenses and news reports have also contributed massively to the process of monitoring, recording and documenting human rights violations, with journalists and citizen journalists often considered to be either the first to catalogue the event, being eyewitnesses to what happened in some cases, and survivors of bombing at other times, or often falling into two or all three of these categories simultaneously. Based on these pivotal roles, the journalists and citizen journalists have been subjected to numerous violations.
 
This report outlines the record of the most notable violations against journalists and media workers in Syria from March 2011 to May 2021, and highlights the most notable violations documented by SNHR in the past year (from May 2020 to May 2021), as well as including the most notable violations that occurred during the same period.
 
The report notes that the violations against journalists, citizen journalists and media workers are continuing for the tenth consecutive year, with the practices of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces against the media sector workers in the past year not differing from previous years, although there were fewer such incidents.
 
The report documents the deaths of 709 journalists and media workers at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria between March 2011 and May 2021, including seven children and six women (adult female), as well as nine foreign journalists, and 52 others who died as a result of torture, with the Syrian regime being responsible for the deaths of 552 journalists and media workers, including five children, one woman, five foreign journalists, and 47 other citizen journalists due to torture in detention centers, while Russian forces were responsible for the deaths of 23 journalists and media workers, and ISIS killed 64, including one child, two women, three foreign journalists, and three under torture. Hay’at Tahrir al Sham also killed eight, including two who died due to torture.
The report further reveals that the Armed Opposition/ Syrian National Army were responsible for the deaths of 25 journalists and media workers, including one child and three women, while Syrian Democratic Forces killed four journalists and media workers, the US-led Coalition forces killed one journalist/ media worker, and 32 were documented as being killed by other parties, including one foreign journalist.
 
The report provides charts that show the distribution of the death toll of journalists and media workers by the perpetrator party, by year and across Syria’s governorates since 2011; analysis of the data shows that the Syrian regime and its Russian ally are responsible for approximately 82% of the death toll of journalists and media workers, with 2013 being the bloodiest year for journalists and media workers (25% of the total death toll), followed by 2012 and 2014, while Aleppo governorate saw the largest death toll among journalists and media workers, approximately 22%, followed by Daraa governorate, then Damascus Suburbs governorate.
The report records that at least 1,563 journalists and media workers have been injured to varying degrees at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria since March 2011.
 
In terms of arbitrary arrests/ enforced disappearances, the report documents at least 1,211 cases of arrests and kidnappings of journalists and media workers at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria since March 2011, of whom at least 432, including three women and 17 foreign journalists, are still detained or forcibly disappeared in detention centers as of May 2021. Of these, 357 journalists and media workers, including two women and four foreign journalists are still detained or forcibly disappeared by Syrian regime forces, while another eight are detained or forcibly disappeared by Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, 12 by the Armed Opposition/ Syrian National Army, and seven by Syrian Democratic Forces. The report adds that 48 journalists and media workers, including one woman and eight foreign journalists, who were arrested and subsequently forcibly disappeared by ISIS are still unaccounted for.
 
The report provides charts that show the distribution of the record of journalists and media workers who are still detained or forcibly disappeared at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces across Syria’s governorates; the data analysis shows that the largest proportion of journalists and media workers who are still detained or forcibly disappeared were originally arrested in Aleppo governorate (approximately 14%), followed by Deir Ez-Zour governorate (approximately 12%), then Damascus (approximately 10%).
As the report reveals, at least 42 cases of arrests and kidnappings of journalists and media workers have been documented at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria between May 2020 and May 2021.
 
The report notes the absence of any independent media and the regime security services’ control of all state media, which have been harnessed to promote sham presidential elections in which Bashar al Assad is running for president, despite his being the figure who led the state throughout the past two decades until it reached its current devastated condition in all human rights, legal, political and economic fields. The report adds that the Syrian regime has introduced laws that violate the most basic principles of human rights and which aim to suppress freedom of opinion and expression.
 
The report concludes, based on the events documented by SNHR documented throughout this period, that all the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces have violated many of the rules and laws of international human rights law in the areas they control, especially those related to freedom of opinion and expression, such as Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 19(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
 
These parties have also violated many rules and articles of international humanitarian law, foremost among which is Rule 34 of customary law, which requires that civilian journalists engaged in professional missions in areas of armed conflict must be respected and protected as long as they are not taking a direct part in hostilities.
 
The report recommends that all the parties to the conflict/ controlling forces should immediately release journalists and media workers who have been arbitrarily detained, reveal the fate of the forcibly disappeared, allow access to all media outlets and cease to proscribe the work of journalists according to the extent of their loyalty to the controlling party, repeal all ‘security laws’ which absolutely suppress and deny freedom of opinion and expression, especially those issued by the Syrian regime, and should not use media as organs to serve the controlling forces and to justify their violations or falsify the truth.
 
The report additionally provides a number of other recommendations.

http://View full Report

26.03.2021. TURKEY. Turkish journalist’s murder trial verdict “leaves bitter taste” (RSF)

Although an Istanbul court today convicted 27 defendants, mostly members of the state security forces or intelligence officials, for their role in Turkish newspaper editor Hrant Dink’s murder in 2007, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) insists that justice has not yet been fully rendered and says everyone connected with this crime must be tried in court.

A journalist and intellectual of Armenian origin, Dink was gunned down on an Istanbul street outside the office of Agos, the weekly newspaper he edited, on 19 January 2007.

Today, 27 of the 76 persons accused in connection with his murder were given prison sentences ranging from three years to life. Those convicted included former national police intelligence section chief Ramazan Akyürek and former intelligence department section chief Ali Fuat Yilmazer.

Four of the defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment on a charge of “attempted subversion.” Eight others were sentenced to an average of seven years in prison for membership of the organisation led by Fethullah Gülen, the US-based Islamic scholar who allegedly masterminded the abortive coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016.

Thirty-three other persons were acquitted and 16 were not included in the verdict (because the cases of 13 of them were separated from this trial, the charges were dropped against two others and one defendant died before start of the trial). The Dink family intends to appeal against today’s verdicts.

“This long trial and these convictions must not give the impression that justice has finally been rendered,” said RSF Turkey representative Erol Önderoglu, who observed today’s trial hearing. “Some of those responsible for Hrant Dink’s murder, including the instigators, have still not been prosecuted. Some of the charges on which the defendants were convicted today also suggest that this trial was used to exact political revenge on Fethullah Gülen supporters who used to hold senior positions in the state apparatus. This partial justice rendered after 14 years leaves a bitter taste and, above all, must not signify the end of the search for the truth.”

The defendants – mostly police officers but also other state apparatus officials based in Istanbul, Ankara and Trabzon – had been prosecuted for the past six years on a range of charges including “knowingly failing to take measures to protect” Dink, “abuse of office” and membership of the Gülen organisation.

Of the 76 persons accused of having at least some degree of involvement in Dink’s murder, seven were in preventive detention. This was the third trial in connection with the murder. At total of seven persons were given prison sentences at the end of the first two trials, including the shooter, Ogün Samast, who was 17 at the time, the person who planned the shooting, and police officers and other state officials.

Certain senior officials linked to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and military high command were excluded from this investigation and trial. The court is supposed to subsequently address the cases of 13 defendants who are missing or cannot be located. They include Gülen himself, former anti-terrorism prosecutor Zekeriya Öz, who fled to Germany, and the journalists Adem Yavuz Arslan and Ekrem Dumanlı.

In 2019, Dink family lawyer Hakan Bakircioglu asked the European Court of Human Rights to examine a Turkish judicial decision not to prosecute 26 people regarded as responsible for smear and hate campaigns against Dink prior to his murder.

This was the second time the ECHR has been asked to issue a ruling in connection with the murder. In September 2010, it ordered Turkey to pay 133,000 euros in compensation for failing to protect Dink’s right to life and for violating his right to freedom of expression.

25.02.2021. Khashoggi killing: UN expert urges US to take lead in holding Saudi officials to account (UN)

The UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary today welcomed the release of a US assessment of the responsibilities for the premeditated execution of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi officials, calling on the US Government to fully declassify its findings and to take the lead to ensure justice for his murder.

“With the release of the US report, confirming Saudi officials culpability at the highest levels, the United States should now take the lead in ensuring accountability for this crime and for setting in place the international mechanisms to prevent and punish such acts in the future,” said Agnes Callamard.

Mr. Khashoggi was the victim of a brutal extrajudicial execution committed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018. The Director of National Intelligence report confirms that the killing was planned and perpetrated by officials at the very highest levels of the State of Saudi Arabia, including the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

“The United States Government should impose sanctions against the Crown Prince, as it has done for the other perpetrators – targeting his personal assets but also his international engagements,” Callamard said. “Banishing those responsible for ordering the execution of Jamal Khashoggi from the international stage is an important step towards justice and key to sending the strongest message possible to would-be perpetrators the world over.”

She further urged that the US should not grant the Crown Prince immunity from civil suits given he is not the head of state.

Callamard - whose own inquiry in 2019 found credible evidence of high-level Saudi officials’ individual liability, including that of the Crown Prince – said the US should ensure that all information about the crime is declassified to the fullest extent possible. “This includes information of the risks to Mr. Khashoggi and other Saudis at the time, and about what occurred in the Saudi trials that the US, and other permanent members of the UN Security Council, attended on a confidential basis,” she said.

“I now call on the United States and the international community to take the additional steps needed to end the ongoing crime against Mr. Khashoggi and his loved ones, to ensure accountability, and to prevent future killings of journalists,” Callamard said.

“The international community should not allow itself to be made to remain complicit in sham investigations and shoddy trials. It should finally demand real accountability,” Callamard said.

The UN expert said that given Mr. Khashoggi’s remains have yet to be located, the international crime of enforced disappearance continues. “His loved ones continue to be subjected to further suffering until Saudi Arabia discloses what was done with his remains,” she said. “Those who know exactly what happened reside in Saudi Arabia, under the control of the government.

“I call on the Government of Saudi Arabia to disclose whether his remains were destroyed onsite or how and where they were disposed. The individuals responsible know only too well the specifics and, in the face of the Saudi’s unconscionable silence, the international community must exert pressure for full disclosure of all the facts.”

In her report on Mr. Khashoggi’s murder, the Special Rapporteur also called for the establishment of a United Nations instrument for the criminal investigation into allegations of targeted killing, or other acts of violence against journalists, human rights defenders or others targeted because of their peaceful activities or expressions.

“I renew my call for a standing international instrument to investigate killings and other serious violations perpetrated against journalists, dissidents and human rights defenders,” Callamard said. She urged States to establish regular and coordinated mechanisms to exchange information on threats to journalists and human rights defenders and to take action against these threats, including by adopting specific legal measures such as a Khashoggi Act, to sanction those responsible for these threats and violations.

The UN expert reiterated her call for a moratorium on the global sale and transfer of private surveillance technology. “Surveillance technology likely facilitated the crime against Mr. Khashoggi, and it is used throughout the world to suppress dissent. The international community should use this moment to propel an end to the sale of this technology to States, such as Saudi Arabia, that have a history of repression until such time that appropriate sales and export controls can be instituted.”

Callamard said that many Saudi citizens remain in prison, or are subject to travel bans and other restrictions, simply for exercising their international rights to free speech and freedom of assembly. “These are the very acts for which Mr. Khashoggi was killed,” she said. “Justice and non-repetition will never be fully achieved until those individuals are freed and Saudi Arabia fulfills its obligations under international law to respect these fundamental values in a comprehensive and enduring way.”

23.02.2021. MALTA. Daphne Caruana Galizia murder: 15-year sentence for Vince Muscat after guilty plea (agencies)

Vincent Muscat was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the murder of Malta investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Caruana Galizia was murdered in Malta on October 16, 2017, in a car bomb attack. The murder shocked the country of just over 500,000 people.

Muscat is one of three men charged with planting the bomb and had originally pleaded not guilty. It is suggested that he may have entered a plea bargain with the Attorney General.

Brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio have pleaded not guilty, however, according to the Times of Malta, which also reports that the suspected bomb makers have been arrested. Police told Euronews that they could not confirm the report.

Caruana Galizia's reporting alleged corruption in the highest levels of government in the small Mediterranean island nation. To some, she was known as a "one-woman WikiLeaks".

The investigative reporter had been fighting dozens of defamation suits and had been arrested twice at the time of her death.

Her murder and the subsequent stalled investigation called into question press freedom and the rule of law in Malta.

In a statement delivered by a lawyer in court, the family said that the person who admitted involvement in the murder "denied her her right to life" and "right to enjoy her family".

"The macabre murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia was intentional and should have been prevented. The victim has paid with her life and her family is suffering the loss of their loved one," the family said in a statement.

The family expressed their hope that this would lead to full justice for the investigative journalist.

For years, there were stalled investigations into the case, but in 2019 several government ministers, including Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, resigned amid questions about their connection to people involved in the murder.

Most notably, prominent businessman Yorgen Fenech was arrested in 2019 as he was escaping on a yacht. He is suspected of having planned the murder.

Another man, Melvin Theuma, a self-described middleman, had agreed to reveal details of the plot to kill the investigative journalist.

28.01.2021. PAKISTAN court orders release of man accused of beheading U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl (Axios)

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the man convicted and later acquitted of beheading American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 should be released.

The state of play: Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh — whose death sentence was overturned last year — and three other men who had been sentenced to life in prison for their alleged involvement were ordered to be released. It remains unclear whether they will be freed on Thursday, AP reports.

• The court also dismissed an appeal of Sheikh's acquittal by Pearl's family.

What they're saying: "The Pearl family is in complete shock by the majority decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to acquit and release Ahmed Omer Sheikh and the other accused persons who kidnapped and killed Daniel Pearl," the Pearl family said in a statement, per AP.

• "Today’s decision is a complete travesty of justice and the release of these killers puts in danger journalists everywhere and the people of Pakistan."

Flashback: Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was investigating a potential link between Pakistani militants and a British man named Richard Reid, also known as the "show bomber" for his attempt to blow up a Paris flight with explosive devices in his shoes, according to AP.

• Sheikh had told Pearl he could arrange a meeting with one of the militants. The day of the supposed meeting in January 2002, Pearl was kidnapped and, some time later, beheaded.

The big picture: "What’s at stake is not only justice for Pearl, but the hundreds of journalists killed around the world by Islamist militants in the last two decades," the Columbia Journalism Review wrote in April after Sheikh's sentence was overturned.

• It is "a devastating setback for justice that would also send a dangerous message to Jihadi militants in Pakistan and around the world, who have systematically targeted journalists in the 18 years since Pearl was killed," CJR added.

Worth noting: The U.S. government had previously said it would demand Sheikh's extradition to be tried in the U.S., but the U.S. Embassy did not respond to his acquittal last year.

21.01.2021. BANGLADESH: Journalist killers given life imprisonment (IFJ)

Five men have been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of journalist Humayun Kabir Balu, sixteen years after he was killed in a targeted explosion in Khulna in 2004. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes the conviction of the killers and calls for stronger action against rampant impunity for crimes against journalists in Bangladesh.

Balu was killed when his attackers threw two bombs in front of his house in Khulna City on June 27, 2004, as he returned home with his three children. He suffered serious injuries to his stomach and leg as a result of the bomb explosions and later died in hospital. His son, a journalism student, was also seriously injured.

The editor of Dainik Janmabhumi and a former president of the Khulna Press Club, Balu was an outspoken activist and freedom fighter. The five convicted - Syed Iqbal Hossain, Nazrul Islam, Masum, Romon and Zahid Hossain - were members of the East Bengal Communist Party. Special Tribunal Judge Md Saifuzzaman Hero passed the verdict on January 18, and each were given a Tk 10,000 fine (USD $118).

The investigation into Balu’s murder encountered delays and obstacles over many years. After the 2004 attack, a charge sheet was submitted accusing eight operatives of the Maoist Purba Bangla Biplobi Communist Party for the killing. The regional head of the organization claimed responsibility in a call to Khulna Press Club, labelling Balu a “class enemy”. Balu reportedly received several death threats in the weeks before his murder. But on February 13, 2008, Judge Mohammad Abdus Salam Sikder acquitted all the accused in the murder case. In 2009, lawyer Enamul Haque applied to the court for further investigation. After a further delay of six years, a supplementary charge sheet was submitted by police on December 31, 2015, leading to the eventual prosecution of the attackers.

Balu’s murder in 2004 came less than six months after the murder of a BBC World Service local correspondent in Khulna, and was one of five journalists killed in Bangladesh that year. Violence against journalists in the country remains a critical issue with the most recent killing recorded in Dhaka inOctober 2020, when Elias Mia, a reporter for Dainik Bijoy, was repeatedly stabbed as he returned home.

Bangladesh Manobadhikar Sangbadik Forum (BMSF) said: “We were concerned on the protracted delay on the justice- delivery in the murder of journalist Humayun Kabir Balu. The BMSF would like to see the court verdict been implemented as soon as possible.”

The IFJ said: “The conviction of five individuals in the murder of Humayun Kabir Balu is a long awaited step in achieving justice after an extended period of impunity. IFJ calls for stronger measures to investigate these attacks and bring journalist killers to justice.”

06.12.2020. MEXICO. Eight years after Regina Martínez Pérez murder, 60 reporters from around the world investigated her death

Regina Martínez Pérez was considered an enemy of the state. The 48-year-old journalist had made powerful foes investigating allegations of collusion between political leaders, security forces and narcotraffickers in the Mexican region of Veracruz.She was a source of irritation for four consecutive state governors, highlighting violence, abuses of power and cover-ups in the pages of Mexico’s foremost investigative news magazine, Proceso.

Martínez was murdered on 28 April 2012 in her modest bungalow in the state capital, Xalapa. Martínez was not the first reporter to be assassinated in Mexico, but the killing of a high-profile correspondent for a national magazine marked the start of a wave of targeted violence which has made ​it the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, outside a warzone.

Eight years after Martínez’s murder, 25 international news media organi​sations took up her unfinished work, in an effort coordinated by Forbidden Stories, a global network of investigative journalists whose mission is to continue the work of reporters who are threatened, censored or killed.

Over 10 months, 60 reporters from around the world investigated her death, the botched murder inquiry ​that followed, and continued her investigation into allegations of links between politics and organi​sed crime during the back-to-back administrations of Veracruz governors Fidel Herrera (2004-2010) and Javier Duarte (2010-2016).

The Cartel Project found that:

• Before her death, Martínez was one of a group of journalists targeted by sophisticated espionage unit run by the Veracruz public security ministry, according to well-placed government sources. The unit used surveillance technology and a vast network of paid informants to monitor and gather intelligence on people perceived to be political opponents of the governor. Leaked documents show that over the past three decades, analysts maintained files on hundreds of targets, which listed family members, coworkers, favourite hangouts, political affiliations and even sexual preferences.
• At the time of her death, Martínez was preparing to publish a bombshell investigation seeking to establish the role of local officials and security forces in concealing the disappearance of thousands of people.
• The murder investigation by state officials was deliberately botched, and investigators ignored compelling evidence that Martínez was murdered because of her work, according the prosecutor who led a parallel federal inquiry. The second investigation was deliberately undermined, the prosecutor said.
• A technical investigation found evidence that a coordinated misinformation campaign promoted the official line that Martínez was killed in a botched robbery​, using bot accounts th​at circulated articles from a news outlet with ties to the state government.
  

02.12.2020. SLOVAKIA. Jan Kuciak: Slovakia's supreme court increases prison sentence for journalist's killer

Slovakia’s supreme court has increased the prison sentence of a former soldier convicted of killing an investigative journalist and his fiancee.

Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova were shot dead in February 2018 at their home in Velka Maca, east of Bratislava.

In April, a lower Slovakian court gave Miroslav Marcek a 23-year prison term for the contract killings. But on Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Slovakia increased the sentence to 25 years.

Marcek had pleaded guilty to the fatal shootings but both defence and prosecution had appealed the original prison term. Wednesday’s supreme court verdict cannot be appealed.

In September a Slovakian court acquitted businessman Marian Kočner, who was accused of masterminding the murders, and one of his co-defendants, Alena Zsuzsová, of involvement in the killings.

Prosecutors have appealed the verdicts but the Supreme Court is yet to rule further.

Two other defendants have been sentenced for the killings. Tomáš Szabó, who was accused of being at the murder scene and driving the getaway vehicle, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Another suspect, who had acted as a go-between, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a lesser sentence and received a 15-year prison term in December.

Jan Kuciak had been investigating the business dealings of Kočner as well as the alleged ties between the Italian mafia and Slovakia's government.

The killings prompted major street protests and a political crisis that led to the coalition government's collapse and the dismissal of the national police chief.

25.11.2020. The Press Emblem Campaign endorses new report providing advice to states to promote more effective investigations into abuses against journalists (International Bar Association)

A new report published today by the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom signals the vital need for effective investigations into abuses against journalists and recommends that states, notably members of the  Media Freedom Coalition, should set up a standing international Investigative Task Force – made up of vetted and trained investigators, forensic experts and legal specialists – that can quickly deploy to crime scenes, and support national investigators as well as UN investigators as needed.

Authored by Nadim Houry, Executive Director of the Arab Reform Initiative and member of the High Level Panel, the report, 'Advice on Promoting More Effective Investigations into Abuses against Journalists ' is the fourth report to be released by the Panel that focuses on improving international mechanisms to enforce international human rights norms.

The report identifies two main factors for the ongoing failure to conduct effective investigations, namely 1) the lack of capacity to undertake investigations owing to ineffective institutions and endemic corruption and 2) the lack of political will to pursue accountability. Fundamentally, persistent impunity has emboldened attackers, leading to further assaults and even killings of journalists and media workers.

more on: https://www.ibanet.org/IBAHRISecretariat.aspx

24.11.2020.Turkish court adds new Saudi defendants in Khashoggi trial

A Turkish court on Tuesday added new defendants to the case against Saudi officials charged over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, state media reported, in a trial that Ankara says is needed to reveal the full truth behind the killing.

Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018. Turkish officials believe his body was dismembered and removed, while his remains have not been found.

In September a Saudi court jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years over the killing, in a trial that critics said lacked transparency. None of the defendants was named.

At Tuesday’s hearing in Istanbul, only the second session of a trial which opened four months ago, the court accepted a second indictment adding six defendants to the list of 20 Saudi officials already being tried in absentia.

The latest indictment accuses a vice consul and an attache of “premeditated murder with monstrous intent”. The four others, also Saudi nationals, were charged with destroying, concealing or tampering with evidence.

The court heard testimony from Egyptian opposition activist Ayman Noor, a friend of Khashoggi’s, before adjourning the case to March 4 and extending a process which has kept Khashoggi’s killing in the public eye and further strained relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

“Qahtani had called him from Saudi Arabia. He threatened him with very strong language, saying he knew his children and was close to them,” Noor said, according to Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency.

Qahtani, a top aide to Prince Mohammed who was sacked and was later sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury over his suspected role, has not faced trial in Saudi Arabia. He did not respond to requests for comment at the time of the Saudi trial.

The CIA and some Western countries believe Prince Mohammed ordered the killing, which Saudi officials deny.

Reporters Without Borders said it was disappointed by the court’s rejection of its request to join the case as a civil party, and would continue to closely monitor the case and call for adherence to international standards.

02.11.2020. UN experts call for international accountability mechanisms to address impunity (UN press release)

GENEVA (2 November 2020) - On the occasion of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnès Callamard, and the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, issue the following statement:

“Around the world every year hundreds of journalists are targeted and attacked for their investigative work and reporting. They are harassed, threatened, kidnapped, tortured, imprisoned and prosecuted for exposing corruption and organised crime, reporting on protests and speaking truth to power. Many are disappeared or killed. The perpetrators of these crimes are rarely held to account. 

Women journalists face heightened risks of sexual and gender-based violence, including rape, sexual assault and harassment online and offline as well as intimidation and threats against themselves or their family members.

Attacks against journalists have a single objective: to silence them. When governments fail to bring to justice those responsible for such attacks, they are effectively exercising a form of censorship, muzzling those who dare to report and chilling others into silence. 

Today we remind States of their obligation to conduct prompt, impartial, thorough, independent and effective investigations into all crimes against journalists. Investigators must presume such crimes are connected to the journalist’s work unless proven otherwise. Investigations must seek to identify and prosecute all those responsible - the hitmen as well as the masterminds, the perpetrators and the instigators as well as those who have conspired to commit, aid and abet or cover up such crimes.

Seven years ago on this day, French journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon were killed in Mali. The alleged perpetrators have been named but are yet to be arrested and prosecuted. We call on the governments concerned to advance the investigation without further delay so that justice may be served.

We reiterate our call for an independent, transparent and credible investigation into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, including an investigation into the masterminds of the murder and those who incited, allowed or turned a blind eye to it. The lack of action in that regard, combined with the lack of transparency in the national judicial process, is the very embodiment of impunity. That is unacceptable and must not be tolerated.

Two years ago, Daphne Caruana Galizia, one of the most prominent investigative journalists in Malta, was assassinated for exposing serious corruption by senior officials in that country. The government must allow the public inquiry into her killing to continue without interference or false deadlines until the truth has been fully established.
 
These cases have received much national and international attention. Many others have not. There is a global pattern of impunity and cover up. The failure to investigate or prosecute crimes against journalists feeds a recurring cycle of violence, violates the right to life and physical security, freedom of opinion and expression, and undermines the independence of the media as an essential pillar of democratic society. That is why when national efforts to address impunity for crimes against journalists are absent or inadequate, we believe an international approach must be adopted.

We are calling for a standing investigatory mechanism to be set up by the United Nations. Drawing on independent international experts, including from the Special Procedures and the Treaty Bodies, this mechanism should be mandated to assist investigations initiated by States; seek information and investigate crimes against journalists; identify avenues for justice at the national, regional and international levels; facilitate independent criminal proceedings; and identify and support measures, including at the political and diplomatic levels, to end impunity, prevent violence against journalists and promote measures to enhance their safety.

We also call on governments to consider imposing the “Khashoggi sanctions”: individualised sanctions against those responsible for ordering acts of violence against journalists, threatening journalists with violence, or preventing or hampering effective investigation into the killings.

We believe preventive measures, including early warning and rapid response mechanisms against threats to journalists, should be strengthened. The Special Procedures, with their necessary expertise, independence and multi-stakeholder networks, are well positioned to contribute to these measures, and should be properly resourced to do so.

As journalists seek to shine the light on responses to COVID-19, they are facing increased attacks. Protecting journalists is protecting the people’s right to know. Governments and the UN must act urgently to end impunity for crimes against journalists.”

The Press Emblem Campaign fully supports the UN Special Rapporteurs' call for an international accountability mechanism.

30.10.2020. End Impunity 2020: Journalists’ killings - masterminds are walking free (IFJ)

Brussels 30 October 2020 - Impunity occurs when those who threaten, attack and kill journalists walk free.

On the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists the IFJ is launching a global campaign targeting those who order crimes against journalists and but go unpunished and demanding governments take urgent steps to put an end to impunity and protect press freedom.

In the past decade 998 journalists have been killed, IFJ reports show, 30 so far in 2020, most of them local journalists. Since 1990, 2644 journalists lost their lives.

These horrifying figures of murders of journalists are concrete evidence of the huge efforts powerful people around the world are doing to hide the truth and terrorise those who dare to reveal it.

These killings not only end the life of the journalists; they also fatally undermine the fundamental right to be informed and to know the truth. 2644 killed journalists are thousands of stories that have remained untold, and when this happens, democracy is seriously affected.

On top of this, justice and compensation to the victims are rarely delivered - only 1 out of 10 crimes against journalists are solved. Killers and masterminds walk free and keep their powerful positions while others are used as scapegoats. Dirty hands, still in power.

The IFJ also recalls the huge toll of physical and verbal attacks against media that remain unpunished, including online harassment, and the wave of intimidation and abuse that journalists have faced during the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing reporters in to silence.

This year, the IFJ is putting an emphasis on 5 countries where the level of impunity remains significantly high and threatens media freedom: Yemen, Russia, Mexico, Somalia and India.

The ongoing conflict in Yemen, which started in 2015, is often called a "forgotten” war. International media coverage is lacking due to the enormous efforts undertaken by parties involved in the conflict to silence the voices of media workers. While many journalists fled the country, some continue to risk their lives in an attempt to remind the world about the conflict. Forty-four journalists were killed in Yemen between 2010 and September 2020 and twenty media workers were, and still are, disappeared.

Critical journalism can be dangerous in Russia, where 17 journalists have been murdered in the past 15 years. Most of them were Russian journalists, many reporting on corruption, human rights abuses or rights violations by authorities or the police. Despite some trials having taken place and some judgements, the IFJ considers most of these crimes unpunished because the masterminds behind those crimes remain free. That is the case in the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006, in which five perpetrators were sentenced to prison terms but, to date, the mastermind behind the killing walks free.

Mexico remains one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the world. The IFJ has already documented 9 killings in 2020, added to the more than one hundred murders* (161 as of the date of this date) since 2006 - the beginning of the so-called "war against drug trafficking". The National Commission of Human Rights of Mexico recognized that there is a level of impunity of 90% for crimes against journalists. Here, again, there are hundreds of cases where corrupt authorities linked to the killings are still in power.

Somalia is one of Africa’s most dangerous countries for journalists, with one of the highest death tolls of media professionals and where impunity reigns. Fifty-seven journalists have been killed since 2010, only 4 perpetrators have been punished. Besides physical attacks, torture and killings, the Somali authorities are arbitrarily closing media outlets and arresting journalists for reporting on controversial topics in a clear attempt to intimidate them.

In India, according to a research report , 40 journalists have been murdered between 2014-2019, of which 21 killings are confirmed to be linked directly with their work as a journalist. According to IFJ’s research, many of the accused involved in the killings and attacks are from government agencies, security forces, political party members, religious sects, student groups, criminal gangs and local mafias. The links between political power and the law-enforcement administration is often very strong, resulting in high rates of impunity.

IFJ President Younes Mjahed said: “We cannot remain silent when the level of impunity across the world is so shockingly high and the masterminds maintain their power because they can escape justice. Democracy requires that the authors of crimes and intimidations be duly brought to justice and pay the price for silencing those who are fighting for the truth. We call on all our affiliates and the international community to join our fight for justice and send a letter to their governments and target countries authorities calling for the end of impunity for crimes against media workers”.

Click here to visit the IFJ campaign against impunity

28.10.2020. CPJ’s 2020 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and their killers go free

By Elana Beiser/CPJ Editorial Director

Incremental progress toward reducing the murders of journalists worldwide is fragile and could be thwarted by legal appeals and lack of political leadership, CPJ found in its latest report on impunity in retaliatory media killings.

CPJ’s annual Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are singled out for murder and their killers go free, showed little change from a year earlier. Somalia, Syria, Iraq, and South Sudan occupy the worst four spots on the list, in that order, as war and political instability perpetuate the cycle of violence and lawlessness.

But each year the index includes more stable countries where criminal and political groups, politicians, business leaders, and other powerful actors resort to violence to silence critical and investigative journalists. CPJ has found that corruption, weak institutions, and lack of political will to pursue robust investigations are all factors behind impunity in these countries, which include Pakistan, Mexico, and the Philippines.

In Pakistan, a surprise legal development this year–while not directly affecting the 2020 Impunity Index–showed that even murder cases that were long thought to be resolved can be upended.

On April 2, the Sindh High Court overturned the murder convictions of four men accused in the 2002 killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The decision found Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who had previously been sentenced to death, guilty only of kidnapping Pearl and reduced his sentence to seven years, which he has already served. The Pearl family and the Sindh provincial government appealed, and according to news reports, the four men remained imprisoned at the end of September.

As CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review, freeing the men “would be a devastating setback for justice that would also send a dangerous message to Jihadi militants in Pakistan and around the world, who have systematically targeted journalists in the 18 years since Pearl was killed.”

Pakistan and the Philippines have been mainstays on the Global Impunity Index since its inception in 2008. The Philippines is the biggest mover in this year’s rankings, improving from the fifth worst country worldwide to the seventh worst.

The change reflects the fact that the November 2009 Ampatuan, Maguindanao, massacre of 58 people, including 30 journalists and two media workers, no longer falls into the 10-year time frame for calculating the index. (Read more about the index methodology).

Landmark convictions late last year led CPJ to adjust the status of the Ampatuan cases to “partial impunity” from “full impunity” previously – meaning that they would no longer have figured into the index calculation regardless of the time frame. On December 19, 2019, a regional court convicted the mastermind, his brother, and 26 accomplices, and issued prison sentences of up to 40 years. The Philippines has 11 unsolved murders in the current 10-year index period, compared with 41 for last year’s index.

However, the Ampatuan case took a full decade to try, and the chief defendants, namely convicted masterminds Andal Ampatuan Jr. and Zaldy Ampatuan, have appealed their convictions. In the Philippines’ labyrinthine and politicized legal system, their legal challenges could take several years to be tried and the possibility of their acquittal on appeal still looms large. Scores of suspects remain free, including Ampatuan clan members, leaving those who have pursued justice for the slain journalists exposed to possible reprisals. Meanwhile, the unaccountable killings continue apace, with at least two Filipino journalists murdered for their work so far in 2020.

In part because of the Philippines moving down the index, Mexico – the deadliest country for journalists in the Western hemisphere – moved to the sixth worst impunity ranking from seventh last year. The number of unsolved murders in Mexico is 26 for this 10-year period, compared with 30 unsolved murders for the previous index.

In the past year, Mexican authorities achieved convictions for some perpetrators in the murders of Miroslava Breach Velducea and Javier Valdez Cárdenas, a CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee. However, the masterminds of both crimes remain at large. Further clouding the outlook for achieving justice for those and other journalists, the federal special prosecutor’s office largely responsible for progress in the Breach and Valdez cases is less assertively taking on new cases since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office. So far in 2020, at least four journalists have been murdered in retaliation for their work in Mexico.

Globally, the number of journalists murdered in reprisal for their work was the lowest in 2019 that CPJ has recorded in any year since 1992. The reason is difficult to pinpoint, with self-censorship, the use of other tools to intimidate reporters, and the high profile nature of some recent cases potentially playing a role.

26.10.2020. France. Sept ans après, les amis de Ghislaine Dupont et de Claude Verlon continuent de demander toute la vérité.

En ce lundi 26 octobre 2020, l'association "Les Amis de Ghislaine Dupont et Claude Verlon" a publié ce communiqué:

"Alors que nous avons appris récemment la remise en liberté d’otages détenus au Mali (notamment Sophie Pétronin et Soumaïla Cissé), les libérations, en contrepartie, de membres importants de groupes armés responsables d’attentats abominables en Afrique et les marchandages humains, financiers et politiques qui les ont permises nous bouleversent et nous inquiètent.

Certains noms cités parmi les djihadistes libérés les 2 et 3 octobre derniers sont présents dans le dossier d’instruction sur le double assassinat de Kidal en 2013. Encore plus inquiétant, le principal négociateur du côté des djihadistes armés serait Sedane Ag Hita, lieutenant d'Iyad Ag Ghaly, chef du Groupe de soutien à l'islam et aux musulmans, GSIM. Selon la justice française, Sedane Ag Hita est l'un des deux commanditaires de l’enlèvement et de l’assassinat de nos deux parents, amis, collègues. Alors que tout indique qu’il est aussi impliqué directement dans toutes les grandes affaires d’otages au Sahel, (« Arlit » ou « Serge Lazarevic – Philippe Verdon », par exemple), est-on en train d'assister à une entreprise de blanchiment et de réhabilitation d'un criminel présumé et de ses complices ?

Le 2 novembre est la date anniversaire de l’assassinat, en 2013, de Ghislaine, grand reporter et de Claude, technicien radio, envoyés spéciaux de Radio France Internationale à Kidal au nord du Mali. Cela fait donc sept ans que des tueurs présumés et leurs commanditaires identifiés par la justice sont libres, tandis que le doute subsiste sur les circonstances et les raisons de ces crimes. Le 2 novembre, c’est aussi la "Journée internationale de la fin de l’impunité pour les crimes commis contre des journalistes » décrétée par l’ONU après le double assassinat de Kidal.

21.10.2020. Khashoggi fiancee sues MBS, Saudi officials in US over murder (Dawn)

The fiancee of journalist Jamal Khashoggi sued Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and other officials on Tuesday in a US court, seeking damages for his brutal murder in Istanbul two years ago.

Turkish citizen Hatice Cengiz and the human rights group Khashoggi formed before his death, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), is pursuing Mohammed bin Salman and 28 others for damages over the October 2, 2018  killing of the US-based writer.

Cengiz claims personal injury and financial losses over Khashoggi’s death, while DAWN said its operations and objectives were hampered by the loss of its founder and central figure.

“The ruthless torture and murder of Mr Khashoggi shocked the conscience of people throughout the world,” the suit said.

“The objective of the murder was clear — to halt Mr Khashoggi’s advocacy in the United States, principally as the executive director of plaintiff DAWN, for democratic reform in the Arab world.”

Cengiz and DAWN said they filed the suit in Washington federal court because they saw no chance for justice in Saudi Arabia, known for its opaque courts, and Turkish legal experts said the civil case would not go forward while Ankara pursues a criminal case over the murder. The suit alleges that the plot against him involved the Saudi embassy in Washington, which directed him to travel to Istanbul to obtain the documents needed for their marriage. It also says his murder damaged the operations of DAWN, which is based in Washington.

16.10.2020. Daphne Caruana Galizia: Fight to uncover the truth behind her murder continues three years on (Euronews/PEC)

It's three years since investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed when a bomb was remotely detonated underneath her car.

Her murder on a quiet country road in Malta on October 16, 2017, sent shockwaves through the country, home to less than half a million people, and attracted widespread international condemnation.

"We knew instantly that this was a lot more than other people would have imagined. It wasn’t some random person taking revenge," Corinne Vella, Caruana Galizia's sister, told Euronews in an interview to mark the anniversary. Corinne Vella and the family of Daphne received the PEC Award in 2018 (see our page PEC AWARD).

"If you wanted to do that, you’d use a different method altogether. This was an extreme act of impunity and it took place in broad daylight."

Three years on, her family are still searching for answers as to who carried out her murder - and who ordered the hit. With arrests made - including that of businessman Yorgen Fenech in November 2019 who police believe masterminded the killing - but no prosecutions to date, the pursuit for justice has become a war of attrition.

"It’s not going to be served without a fight. That’s something we’re certain of. We can’t just sit back and wait for justice to be served," said Vella. "If it were that simple, Daphne would not have been killed in the first place."

Caruana Galizia's reporting alleged dirty money scandals, organised crime, and corruption in the highest echelons of government in the small Mediterranean island nation. Her investigative journalism earned her the epithet as a "one-woman WikiLeaks" but in turn, made powerful enemies and exposed her to danger.

At the time of her death, she was fighting over 40 defamation suits. She had been arrested twice. Was Caruana Galizia fazed by the constant intimidation, legal battles, and threats of arrest and physical harm she faced?

"Reporting is a compulsion. You can no more keep a journalist away from journalism than you can keep a pianist away from a piano. Eventually, you’re going to want to play, you’re going to want to write. No matter what is happening, that instinct is there and you’re going to try to push through it," Vella said.

"But the other thing about threats is that people imagine this scenario where someone picks up the phone and calls you and says ‘if you don’t shut up, I’m going to kill you.’ It doesn’t work like that – it’s a lot more subtle, particularly with political corruption... The threats are hanging there in the air; the constant isolation, the constant demonisation, dehumanisation, being set up as a target."

For the best part of 30 years, Caruana Galizia singlehandedly spoke truth to power through investigations published on her popular blog Running Commentary, and in her newspaper columns.

One of her last investigations centred on allegations that then Economy Minister, Christian Cardona had visited a brothel on a trip to a conference in Germany. She also famously exposed Maltese links to off-shore companies, which were later confirmed in the Panama Papers leak, putting Konrad Mizzi, a government minister, Keith Schembri, the chief of staff of prime minister Joseph Muscat, as well as the premier's wife Michelle, who also had links to an off-shore Panamanian company, in her crosshairs.

"It’s too soon to say that corruption is coming to a head. Nobody has been prosecuted for political corruption, not so far. The same networks of power still exist; it will take time to wipe those out," Vella told Euronews.

Press freedom under threat

As well as systemic corruption, other democratic norms, such as freedom of the press, were called into question with the targeting of Caruana Galizia.

Just days before she was killed, she expressed concerns in an interview with a Council of Europe researcher that other journalists were being deterred from carrying out similar investigations because they saw how she was treated by the Maltese authorities.

Vella is optimistic though that her sister's murder did not have the effect of silencing the press.

“I wish she could have been alive to see what’s happening because actually many journalists have taken up where she left off, and they’re doing that in an environment where we now know for certain that you can be killed for what you do," said Vella. "Whereas before it was a supposition, a possibility, now it is a certainty."

"People sometimes forget there is an important role that journalists play, whether we like what we read or not. It is essential," she added.

As well as journalists stepping in the breach locally, the Daphne Project, a consortium established in the wake of her murder, has brought together journalists from around the world, including titles such as The Guardian, Le Monde, La Repubblica, New York Times and the Süddeutsche Zeitung, to work collaboratively to continue her investigative work.

In this way, her journalistic legacy lives on. The sense of loss though is palpable, and for Vella, her sister's absence is felt more keenly in the once commonplace, everyday gestures between siblings.

"One of the times it hits me hardest is when I see something I know would appeal to her sense of humour, I instinctively reach out to send her a WhatsApp and I can’t do that. I can’t," said Vella.

"It really hits home because there are some things which I can only say to her. Not because nobody else would get it; it’s just something that used to happen often and it’s just not there anymore."

People power

With Caruana Galizia's suspected killers yet to face justice, the family are left tending to open wounds that show little signs of healing.

Three men - brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio and Vincent Muscat - were charged with planting the bomb but will not face trial until next year. They all pleaded not guilty. A fourth man, Melvin Theuma, who has claimed to be the middleman in the contract killing of Caruana Galizia, has agreed to give testimony in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Courts are currently hearing evidence to decide whether Fenech, one of the island's most prominent businessmen, should stand trial after being charged with financing and organising the journalist's murder, claims he denies.

Given the size of Malta, close proximity to those responsible can be jarring for Caruana Galizia's loved ones.

"A small space makes a lot of things much more difficult. So, on a personal level, yes it is challenging but it would be wherever we are," Vella said. "What is good about being in a small space is that people can mobilise very quickly and a lot of people have done that."

"In our particular case, yes it’s going to be what you call I suppose, in a traditional sense, ‘people power’ that’s going to make a difference but it takes time to fix institutions. You don’t just need legal structures; you need an entire shift in mind-set and that takes a very long time."

In November 2019, Malta was rocked by popular protests which publicly called for the prime minister's resignation after close associates, including Schembri, were arrested and questioned over Caruana Galizia's murder. Muscat eventually gave in to demands to stand down, leaving office in January this year.

Even with public support helping to hold the powerful to account, closure will remain elusive for the family - for now, at least.

"There will not be a sense of closure until everyone is brought to justice, and that doesn’t mean just for Daphne’s murder. It also means for everybody she exposed," said Vella.

"She exposed corruption, she exposed crime. She exposed crime because she was covering politics as a commentator. She arrived at crime through politics so that shows you how tangled the web is."

07.10.2020. DOJ charges ISIS members accused in death of journalist James Foley and other hostages (AP/PEC)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department unsealed charges Wednesday against two Islamic State militants from Britain, accusing them of carrying out a gruesome campaign of torture, beheadings and other acts of violence against hostages they had captured in Syria, including four Americans.

El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey are two of four men dubbed “the Beatles” by the hostages they held captive because of their British accents. The group is alleged to have detained or killed hostages in Syria, including U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.

They made their first appearance Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, where a federal grand jury issued an eight-count indictment accusing them of being “leading participants in a brutal hostage-taking scheme.” 

The men’s arrival in the U.S. sets the stage for a terrorism trial— the most notable since the 2014 criminal case against the suspected ringleader of a deadly attack on the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

The charges are a milestone in a years-long effort by U.S. authorities to bring to justice members of the group. The case underscores the Justice Department’s commitment to prosecuting militants captured overseas, said Assistant Attorney General John Demers, who vowed that other extremists “will be pursued to the ends of the earth.”

“If you have American blood in your veins or American blood on your hands, you will face American justice,” Demers, the Justice Department’s top national security official, said at a news conference announcing the charges.

Videos of the killings, released online in the form of Islamic State propaganda, stunned the U.S. government for their unflinching violence. The recordings routinely showed prisoners in orange jumpsuits on their knees beside a captor dressed in black whose native English drove home the global reach of a group that at its peak occupied vast swaths of Syria and Iraq.

Relatives of four of the slain hostages praised the Justice Department for transferring the men to the U.S. for trial, saying, “Now our families can pursue accountability for these crimes against our children in a U.S. court.”

The indictment describes Kotey and Elsheikh as “leading participants in a brutal hostage-taking scheme targeting American and European citizens” from 2012 through 2015.

In July 2014, according to the indictment, Elsheikh described to a family member his participation in an Islamic State attack on the Syrian Army. He sent the family member photos of decapitated heads and said in a voice message, “There’s many heads, this is just a couple that I took a photo of.”

The two have been held since October 2019 in American military custody, and the Justice Department has long wanted to put them on trial. They were captured in Syria in 2018 by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

“These charges are the product of many years of hard work in pursuit of justice for our citizens slain by ISIS. Although we cannot bring them back, we can and will seek justice for them, their families, and for all Americans,” Attorney General William P. Barr said in a statement.

In order to secure British help in obtaining evidence on the pair, Barr agreed that U.S. prosecutors would not seek the death penalty in any cases against them and would not carry out executions if they were imposed.

FBI Director Christopher Wray and Demers said the support of the British government was critical to moving the investigation and prosecution forward.

In interviews while in detention, the two men admitted that they helped collect email addresses from Kayla Mueller that could be used to send out ransom demands. Mueller was killed in 2015 after 18 months in ISIS captivity.

The State Department described their conduct in terms not nearly so benign. The agency declared Elsheikh and Kotey as specially designated global terrorists in 2017.

Specifically, the State Department said Elsheikh “was said to have earned a reputation for waterboarding, mock executions, and crucifixions while serving as an ISIS jailer.”

Kotey, according to the State Department, acted as an Islamic State recruiter and “likely engaged in the group’s executions and exceptionally cruel torture methods, including electronic shock and waterboarding.”

The other two Beatles included the most infamous member of the group, Mohammed Emwazi, known as “Jihadi John,” who was killed in a 2015 drone strike. Emwazi appeared and spoke in the video of Foley’s execution. The fourth member, Aine Lesley Davis, was sentenced to 7 years in prison in Turkey in 2017.

Diane Foley seeking justice for six long years

Diane Foley has been seeking justice after the kidnapping and brutal murder of her son James Foley, and she hopes that she may finally get her wish as two ISIS militants have been charged in connection to the journalist’s death.

“It was eight years ago, and we’ve been seeking justice for six long years,” Diane Foley said. “I’m incredibly grateful. It’s been a long time coming.”

Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department announced that Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh will be charged with murder in connection to the case. They are two of four former ISIS militants thought to be responsible for Foley’s murder, along with the deaths of three other Americans in Syria.

“These men will now be brought before a U.S. court to face justice for the depraved acts alleged against them in this indictment,” Eastern District of Virginia U.S. Attorney Zachary Terwilliger said.

Foley is a graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, and was working as a freelance reporter during the Syrian Civil War when he was kidnapped in 2012. He was held hostage for nearly two years before being beheaded by his captors in Aug. 2014.

On Wednesday, Elsheikh and Kotey were flown to the United States from Iraq, where they had been held for the previous year. Their families had sought to have them tried in Great Britain, where penalties are not as severe, but they will now face charges in the United States.

Even still, Foley’s mother does not want the men to face the death penalty.

“If they are convicted, they should be held for the rest of their lives,” she said. “I am hoping they will implicate others who may be hiding in refugee camps or other parts of Europe, or to even help us find where the remains of our loved ones are.”

Diane Foley is also hoping that her son’s legacy will be remembered, and that future journalists will be inspired to show the courage that he did.

“I am very proud of Jim. He aspired to be a man of moral courage, and he knew that to be a really good journalist, you needed moral courage,” she said.

15.09.2020. Malta must ensure independence of Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination public inquiry (ECPMF)

In a letter to Prime Minister Abela, ECPMF and partner organisations express grave concern about his Government’s apparent interference with the activities of the independent public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, in relation to the timeframe for the fulfilment of its terms of reference.

Dr Robert Abela
Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
Auberge de Castille
Valletta, VLT 1061
Malta

Sent electronically via robert.abela@gov.mt
CC: Mr Clyde Caruana, Head of Secretariat, clyde.caruana@gov.mt

Leipzig, 14 September 2020

Re: the apparent interference with the activities of the independent public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia

Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing to express our grave concern about your Government’s apparent interference with the activities of the independent public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, in relation to the timeframe for the fulfilment of its terms of reference.

It is our understanding that the Board of Inquiry wrote to you to inform you that it would take longer than the nine-month time period proposed in the Terms of Reference to complete its activities. It also requested that the timeframe during which resources are put at the disposal of the Board, such as the use of the court halls, would be extended accordingly. In response to this you stated that the public inquiry must complete its work by mid-December of this year.

For this inquiry to be regarded as effective under Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights, it must be carried out in a manner that ensures independence from those implicated in the events, which means not only a lack of hierarchical or institutional connection, but also concrete and practical independence.

The Terms of Reference, published by the Government by means of a public notice on 15 November 2019, are the main rules governing the proceedings of the public inquiry. Whereas these Terms of Reference state the aim of concluding the tasks within nine months, this is “without prejudice to the due fulfilment of these Terms of Reference”. Furthermore, the Inquiries Act provides no time limit in which a board of inquiry must conclude its tasks.

Moreover, we note that the Board of Inquiry is working diligently, but that because of the many witnesses to be heard and delays caused by the Corona pandemic, an extension of its activities is necessary to fulfil the Terms of Reference.

Accordingly, we consider your presumption to set a time by which the Board of Inquiry must finish its activities constitutes undue interference with the fulfilment of the Board’s task, hinders the fair and due fulfilment of its Terms of Reference and, as such, violates Article 2 of the European Convention.

Therefore, we respectfully request you refrain from attempting to impose such a time limit, or any other interference with the independence of the Board of Inquiry, and to ensure that it has the resources at its disposal to fulfil the Terms of Reference, as decided by the independent Board itself.

END

07.09.2020. Saudi Court issues final verdicts in Journalist Jamal Khashoggi's killing (AP)

A Saudi court issued final verdicts on Monday in the case of slain Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi after his son, who still resides in the kingdom, announced pardons that spared five of the convicted individuals from execution.

While the trial draws to its conclusion in Saudi Arabia, the case continues to cast a shadow over the international standing of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose associates have been sanctioned by the US and the UK for their alleged involvement in the brutal killing, which took place inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

The Riyadh Criminal Court''s final verdicts were announced by Saudi Arabia''s state television, which aired few details about the eight Saudi nationals and did not name them.

The court ordered a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the five. Another individual received a 10-year sentence, and two others were ordered to serve seven years in prison.

A team of 15 Saudi agents had flown to Turkey to meet Khashoggi inside the consulate for his appointment on October 2, 2018 to pick up documents that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiance, who waited outside. The team included a forensic doctor, intelligence and security officers, and individuals who worked directly for the crown prince''s office, according to Agnes Callamard, who investigated the killing for the United Nations.

Turkish officials allege Khashoggi was killed and then dismembered with a bone saw inside the consulate. His body has not been found. Turkey apparently had the consulate bugged and shared audio of the killing with the C.I.A., among others.

Western intelligence agencies, as well as the US Congress, have said the crown prince bears ultimate responsibility for the killing and that an operation of this magnitude could not have happened without his knowledge.

The 35-year-old prince denies any knowledge of the operation and has condemned the killing. He continues to have the support of his father, King Salman, and remains popular among Saudi youth at home. He also maintains the support of President Donald Trump, who has defended US-Saudi ties in the face of the international outcry over the slaying.

Saudi Arabia''s trial of the suspects has been widely criticized by rights groups and observers, who note that no senior officials nor anyone suspected of ordering the killing has been found guilty. The independence of the Riyadh Criminal Court has also been questioned.

Callamard, the UN special rapporteur who investigated Khashoggi''s killing, told The Associated Press in a statement that the crown prince has remained “well protected against any kind of meaningful scrutiny in his country” and the high-level officials who organized the killing have walked free from the start.

“These verdicts cannot be allowed to whitewash what happened,” she said, calling on US intelligence services to publicly release their assessments of the crown prince''s responsibility. “While formal justice in Saudi Arabia cannot be achieved, truth telling can.”

A small number of diplomats, including from Turkey, as well as members of Khashoggi''s family, were allowed to attend the initial trial. Independent media and the public were barred.

Yasin Aktay, a senior member of Turkey''s ruling party and a friend of Khashoggi, criticized the final court rulings, saying those who ordered the killing remain free while several questions concerning the journalist''s death remain unanswered.

He also said there were questions as to whether those convicted in the killing are imprisoned.

“According to what we have heard, those who were convicted are roaming freely and living in luxury,” he said. “The truth of the matter is this case should be tried in Turkey, not in Saudi Arabia.”

Saudi Arabia has tried 11 people in total, sentencing five to death in December and ordering three others to prison for covering up the crime. The crown prince''s senior advisors at the time of the killing, namely Saud al-Qahtani and intelligence officer Ahmed al-Asiri, were not found guilty.

The trial also concluded the killing was not premeditated. That paved the way for Salah Khashoggi, one of the slain writer''s sons, to months later announce that the family had forgiven the killers, which essentially allowed the five to be pardoned from execution in accordance with Islamic law.

Salah Khashoggi lives in Saudi Arabia and has received financial compensation from the royal court for his father''s killing.

Saudi Arabia initially offered shifting accounts about Khashoggi''s disappearance, including claiming to have surveillance video showing him walking out of the consulate alive. As international pressure mounted because of Turkish leaks, the kingdom eventually settled on the explanation that he was killed by rogue officials in a brawl inside the consulate.

Prior to his killing, Khashoggi had been writing critically of Prince Mohammed in columns for the Washington Post at a time when the young heir to the throne was being widely hailed in the U.S. for pushing through social reforms and curtailing the power of religious conservatives.

Dozens of perceived critics of the prince remain in prison, including women''s rights activists, and face trial on national security charges.

Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia for the US just as Prince Mohammed was beginning to detain writers and critics in late 2017.

Other critics of the crown prince have said their security has been threatened following Khashoggi''s killing. 

03.09.2020. Powerful Slovak Businessman Cleared of Murdering Journalist (OCCRP)

An ex-soldier has been sent to prison for murdering Slovakian journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, but a notorious businessman accused of masterminding the killings was cleared in a shock outcome to a case that has reshaped the country’s political landscape.

Tomas Szabó was sentenced to 25 years in a maximum-security facility for the killings of Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová, who were shot dead in their home east of Bratislava in February 2018 both aged 27.

But Marian Kočner, once one of the most powerful people in the country, and his former lover were both cleared of ordering the killings during the hearing on September 3, at the culmination of one of the most high-profile trials in Slovakian history. 

Long a fixture in the local tabloids due to his extravagant wealth and rumored connections to organized crime, Kočner was only found guilty of one count of possessing ammunition, which he had already admitted. He was handed a 5,000-euro fine.

The parents of Kušnírová and Kuciak shed silent tears after the verdicts were read out to the court, then hurried out past the crowds of journalists that were waiting outside the courtroom after the hearing ended. 

Two other people have already been sentenced to prison for their roles in the murders, including Szabó’s cousin, who pleaded guilty to killing Kuciak and Kušnírová.

Prosecutors and the families’ lawyers said they would appeal the verdict to the Supreme Court. 

The shocking double murder of the young couple set off a political storm in Slovakia that drove tens of thousands into the streets to demand justice for the young couple. Their calls for change prompted a series of high-profile resignations from the government, eventually toppling the then Prosecutor General Dobroslav Trnka and Prime Minister Robert Fico.

In March, Slovakian police arrested 18 people, including 13 judges, for obstruction of justice, corruption, and interfering in the courts’ independence. They are believed to be among the network of well-placed insiders who protected Kočner from prosecution for years, whom he allegedly controlled through blackmail, extortion and bribery.

Kočner’s former lover, Zsuzsová, was also found not guilty of helping to organize the murders. A vast cache of evidence collected by police during the investigation showed how she helped the businessman spin his web of influence. 

Messages from his phone reveal she spent years entrapping people of interest on his behalf, using photoshopped pictures of women in lingerie to entice them into sending her compromising material.

Journalists from OCCRP and our member centers spent months cataloguing terabytes of data collected during the police’s investigation, including files from Kočner’s phone and computer. It is now freely available to journalists in an archive in Bratislava which we have dubbed the Kočner Library.

Zoltán Andruskó, a former pizzeria manager who acted as a go-between with the assassins, confessed his role in the murders to police early in their investigation, describing how he had hired Marček and Szabó to carry out the hit. 

In December, Andruskó was given 15 years in prison, a more lenient sentence than the other defendants had faced because of his cooperation with law enforcement. 

Marček was given 23 years after pleading guilty to the killings in January. In court, he described in detail how he hid in the couple’s garden waiting for two hours before he entered the house and shot them both using a silencer and modified ammunition.

As well as Kuciak and Kušnírová’s deaths, Marček also confessed to the previously unsolved murder of businessman Petr Molnár. 

02.04.2020. PAKISTAN. Denial of justice for Daniel Pearl’s murder (RSF)

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns today’s incoherent decision by a court in Karachi, in southern Pakistan, commuting the death sentence passed on the mastermind of US reporter Daniel Pearl’s murder to seven years in prison. The ruling is a shocking symbol of impunity for crimes of violence against journalists, RSF said.

As Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the mastermind of Daniel Pearl’s 2002 murder, has been imprisoned for the past 18 years, the seven-year sentence means he will be now be released.

The Sindh province high court in Karachi issued this decision in response to the appeal that Sheikh originally filed in 2002. The court acquitted three other persons who were originally sentenced to life imprisonment for their role in Pearl’s abduction and murder.

“While RSF is totally opposed to capital punishment, we deeply regret this incoherent decision by the judges in Karachi,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “It recognizes Sheikh’s guilt while in effect overturning his conviction. This is a shocking denial of justice for Daniel Pearl’s family and will stand as a symbol of impunity for crimes of violence against journalists in Pakistan.”

"This decision by the Sindh high court in Karachi sends the message that Pakistan's courts do not uphold the rule of law," said Dokhi Fassihian, Executive Director of RSF’s North America bureau. "The fact that the perpetrator of one of the most gruesome crimes committed against a journalist is simply set free by a court should give the international community pause about whether the government of Pakistan can be relied on to administer justice."

The Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief, Pearl was investigating Islamist activity in Karachi when he disappeared on 23 January 2002. His abduction was claimed by a previously unknown group that demanded the release of Pakistani citizens captured by the US military in Afghanistan.

A month after his abduction, a video was sent to the US consulate in Karachi that showed Pearl’s captors cutting his throat and then severing his head.

Sheikh, who was brought up in London and has British as well as Pakistani citizenship, admitted at an initial court hearing after his arrest that he masterminded Pearl’s abduction and murder.

28.02.2020. MEXICO. CPJ welcomes conviction in murder of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez

Culiacán, February 28, 2020 – The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed the conviction of one of the murderers of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas, and urged authorities to bring all the perpetrators, including the mastermind, to justice.

Yesterday, a federal court in Culiacán, the capital of the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa, sentenced Heriberto “N,” alias “El Koala,” to 14 years and eight months in prison for his participation in the 2017 killing of Valdez. The verdict was a result of an abbreviated trial, similar to a plea bargain, in which El Koala assumed responsibility for his role in the murder of the reporter, a 2011 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award. CPJ attended the trial.

El Koala is one of two men on trial for carrying out the killing of Valdez, who was shot dead on May 15, 2017, near the offices of Ríodoce, the investigative weekly he co-founded in 2003. The second suspect, Juan Francisco “N,” alias “El Quillo,” rejected the prosecution’s offer of a plea bargain. The conviction of El Koala is the first on the federal level in a murder case of a journalist under Mexico’s new justice system, which includes public trials and a presumption of innocence and was fully implemented in 2016.

“The conviction of ‘El Koala’ is a welcome step forward in the murder of one of Mexico’s most valiant and independent critical voices — a case that has languished with no justice for far too long,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico’s CPJ Representative. “However, Mexican authorities must do everything in their power to bring all those involved to court, both to serve justice for Javier Valdez and as the only hope of curbing rampant impunity in journalist murders.”

The alleged mastermind of the murder has yet to be tried in Mexico. Federal authorities recently issued an arrest warrant for Dámaso López Serrano, alias “El Mini Lic,” who they believe ordered the killing of Valdez, according to news reports. López Serrano, the alleged leader of an offshoot gang of the Sinaloa Cartel, a notorious organized crime group based in the state of the same name, surrendered himself to U.S. authorities on July 27, 2017.

25.02.2020. COLOMBIA. Prosecutor declares 1990 murder of Colombian journalist a crime against humanity

On Feb. 24, the Prosecutor’s Office 40 of the Specialized Directorate Against Human Rights Violations in Colombia declared the murders of journalist Silvia Duzán and three members of the Association of Farm Workers of Carare (ATCC, for its acronym in Spanish) as crimes against humanity, according to the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP).

The massacre took place 30 years ago on Feb. 26, 1990, in the municipality of Cimitarra, in the department of Santander, Colombia.

Duzán was murdered while making a documentary about the peaceful resistance of the ATCC for English TV Channel 4.

The prosecutor's office, according to the FLIP note, acknowledged that the massacre took place in a context of widespread and systematic attack by members of paramilitary groups against the civilian population.

The FLIP recognizes the importance of the declaration as a crime against humanity because it is an advance in the fight against impunity in the case, since this declaration has as its main effect the imprescriptibility of the events,” meaning there are no time limits on when the case can be prosecuted, the entity wrote in a statement. However, FLIP said that the decision is late, because it was only made two days before the 30th anniversary of the crime, and that there is still no significant progress in the investigation and those responsible haven’t been punished.

“The FLIP calls on the prosecutor’s office to carry out a serious, impartial investigation and within a reasonable time that will overcome the scenario of impunity that has prevailed in this crime for thirty years,” the statement concluded.

The prosecutor’s office also acknowledged that the homicide had a serious impact on the exercise of freedom of expression in the country. According to the newspaper El Espectador, the institution said the crime had a triple negative impact: it violates the victims' right to speak out, “generates an effect of silence and fear in the victim's colleagues; and, finally, it violates the collective rights to seek and receive information.”

Silvia Duzán was the sister of María Jimena Duzán, current journalist for Revista Semana. María Jimena wrote a book, the result of her journalistic investigation into her sister's death, called "Mi viaje al infierno" (My trip to hell).

In an interview with Revista Semana in 2015, María Jimena says that the murders were committed in a busy bar, and the entire village witnessed the crimes. “"(...) The massacre was done in front of the Army battalion, in a bar called La Tata, which was full of people on a holiday Friday. Everyone knew who shot and who were the ones who protected the murderers in their getaway."

Semana prepared a special article on the 30 years of the massacre, with excerpts from María Jimena's book and a video, in which she recounts details of the murder. In the video, the journalist says she still seeks answers to the crime. “I do want an answer. I do want to be told why they killed the farmers and my sister,” she said.

Silvia and María Jimena’s father, Lucio Duzán, was a columnist for El Espectador. As María Jimena recalls, in a special on the 25 years of Silvia's death, published by El Espectador, the two went every Saturday with their father to the newspaper in Bogotá. While he delivered his texts, they looked in awe at the presses.

María Jimena, who has been the victim of recent lawsuits and death threats for her journalistic work, said on Twitter this month that she misses her sister more and more.