MAY 12 – INDIA

INDRADEV YADAV, the 35-year-old television journalist based in Chatra of Jharkhand state was shot dead by unidentified people near his home while he was on his motorcycle. The assailants fired at least five shots, two of which hit him killing him immediately. Yadav, also known as Akhilesh Pratap Yadav, was the local correspondent for Taaza TV, a Hindi news channel based in Kolkota. Originally from Bihar state, Yadav had settled down in Jharkhand working as a journalist for five years and was known for his critical reporting on corruption. He is survived by his wife and two children. Credit: IUJ

MAY 15 – INDIA RAJDEO RANJAN, the Bureau Chief of Dainik Hindustan was gunned down in Siwan, Bihar. The Indian Journalists Union (IJU), an IFJ affiliate, said that the journalist was killed as a result of his work exposing corruption and criminal activities of “political and criminal” mafia groups. Rajdeo Ranjan was vice-president of the Siwan District Unit of the Bihar Working Journalists Union (BWJU) which is affiliated to the IJU. He had previously been attacked in 2005 in an assault on his newsroom. The shootings took the toll of murders of journalists in India to eight in the past year and to more than 100 in the last two decades. Credit: IUJ

A Tribute to Female Journalists and Media Staff Killed in 2016

It is our responsibility each year to bear witness, to mourn and to remember those journalists who have been slain for doing their jobs. While numbers of killings have reduced slightly in 2016, the threats to press freedom – and, therefore – to journalists’ lives appear to be on the rise again. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the horrific numbers of journalists imprisoned and attacked with impunity, including female journalists.

Lest we forget, our reporting mechanisms and research on violence and attacks on women journalists are improving. We have not added this focus to demean or belittle attacks against male journalists, but simply because data on female journalists has only just been collected for the past few years. It is important to remember and to work tirelessly against these needless deaths, violence and imprisonment. Let us never forget those sisters lost in 2016:

ZAINAB MIRZAEE and MARIAM IBRAHIMI, dubbing artists for TOLO TV, who were killed (along with 5 other colleagues) on a bus targeted by a suicide bomber on January 20 in Afghanistan.

ANABEL FLORES SALAZAR was a reporter for El Sol de Orizaba y El Buen Tono in Mexico. She had been held captive in her home by armed men on 8 February, and found dead the following day, her hands tied and her body showing signs of torture. According to the Spanish News Agency EFE, she had received death threats from Los Zetas, a crime cartel, as a result of investigations against them in the newspaper.

SAGAL SALAD OSMAN, worked for the state broadcaster, Radio Mogadishu as a presenter and producer. She was shot dead in the Somalia capital Mogadishu on 5 June. The AFP quoted colleagues as saying that she was gunned down near a university by unidentified gunmen who fled.

ZAMIRA ESTHER BAUTISTA, a reporter for El Mercurio and and La Verdad newspapers in the Mexician city of Victoria, was gunned down on 20 June as she was driving to work.

 

FULL REPORT ON JOURNLAISTS KILLED IN 2016