24 journalists killed worldwide in 2000 because of their work (02/25/01)

24 journalists killed worldwide in 2000 because of their work

NEW YORK - Of the 24 journalists killed for their work in 2000, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 16 were murdered - most of those in countries where assassins have learned they can kill journalists with impunity. This figure is down from 1999, when CPJ found that 34 journalists were killed for their work, 10 of them in war-torn Sierra Leone.

In announcing the organization's annual accounting of journalists who lost their lives because of their work, CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper noted that while most of the deaths occurred in countries experiencing war or civil strife, "The majority did not die in crossfire. They were very deliberately targeted for elimination because of their reporting." Others whose deaths were documented by CPJ appear to have been singled out while covering demonstrations, or were caught in military actions or ambushes while on assignment.

In Colombia, a country riven by civil war for nearly four decades, CPJ's research documented three journalists murdered for their work in 2000, all shot dead by assassins. CPJ continues to investigate the cases of another four killed journalists in Colombia, whose deaths last year may have been related to their professional work. No arrests have been made in any of the cases. In the past decade, 34 Colombian journalists have been killed as a result of their work.

In Russia, another country where assassins who murder journalists are rarely brought to justice, another three journalists were killed in 2000 - one taken hostage and shot to death by Chechen rebels, another bludgeoned outside his Moscow apartment, apparently because of his paper's reporting, and the third killed in Chechnya while riding in a vehicle that was blown up.

The ongoing strife in Sierra Leone also claimed three journalists in 2000 - a local reporter in Freetown, and two journalists for international wire services who were caught in a rebel ambush. A year earlier, Sierra Leone was infamous as the deadliest country in the world for journalists; 10 died there in 1999, most of them hunted down and murdered by rebel forces angered by their reporting on human rights abuses.

In addition to the 24 cases described in its report, CPJ continues to investigate the deaths of another 20 journalists, where circumstances indicate their killings may have been related to their professional work.

CPJ noted that it fears that a missing journalist, Belarusian television cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky, may have been killed in 2000. Mr. Zavadsky disappeared at the airport in Miensk on July 7, 2000. An official investigation, conducted in secret, now appears to be stalled.

While wars and civil strife make journalism a dangerous profession, impunity compounds the risk, noted Ms. Cooper. "If people who want to silence the press know they will not be held accountable, they will commit - and get away with - murder," she said.

In a few cases, such as those of Heorhii Gongadze in Ukraine and Carlos Cardoso in Mozambique, social protests and public pressure for investigations mark an encouraging erosion of impunity. But even in such high-profile cases, "press freedom groups must maintain pressure for justice, so that all journalists can do their jobs free from the fear of violent reprisals," Ms. Cooper said.

CPJ provided the following statistics on the numbers of journalists killed in 2000 because of their work: Colombia, Russia and Sierra Leone, three; Bangladesh and the Philippines, two; Brazil, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Mozambique, Pakistan, Somalia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Uruguay, one. Detailed accounts on the circumstances of the deaths are available on CPJ's website, along with case reports on the 20 journalists whose deaths CPJ is continuing to investigate. (Go to www.cpj.org and click on "Journalists Killed in 2000.")

CPJ's listing noted that Mr. Gongadze, 31, editor of the news website Ukrainska Pravda (www.pravda.com.ua), which often featured articles critical of President Leonid Kuchma and other Ukrainian government officials, disappeared in Kyiv on September 16, 2000.

In early November 2000, a headless corpse was discovered outside the town of Tarascha. Based on jewelry found at the scene and an X-ray of the corpse's hand that showed an old injury matching one Mr. Gongadze had suffered, his colleagues concluded the body was indeed Mr. Gongadze's.

In late November, an opposition leader released an audiotape that seemed to implicate President Kuchma and two senior aides in the journalist's disappearance. On December 29, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA ) reported that a German forensic analysis appeared to link the corpse to the missing journalist. While the Ukrainian government claimed to be conducting DNA tests, accusations that it was staging a cover-up appear to pose a serious political threat to Mr. Kuchma.

CPJ underscored that its researchers apply stringent guidelines and journalistic standards to determine whether journalists were killed on assignment or as a direct result of their professional work. By publicizing and protesting these killings, CPJ works to help change the conditions that foster violence against journalists. The death toll that CPJ compiles each year is one of the most widely cited measures of press freedom in the world.

For more information about journalists killed in 2000, and for information about the work of CPJ, including information about attacks on journalists worldwide, visit CPJ's website (www.cpj.org) or call (212) 465-9344 ext. 105.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom everywhere.

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