9 Killed Journalists in First Weeks of 2000 After an appalling 12 months in which 87 journalists and media staff were killed, the year 2000 has already seen more brutal violence, with 9 journalists killed in the first 9 weeks of the new year. The first victim was a Sri Lankan journalist who was assassinated […]
9 Killed Journalists in First Weeks of 2000
After an appalling 12 months in which 87 journalists and media staff were killed, the year 2000 has already seen more brutal violence, with 9 journalists killed in the first 9 weeks of the new year.
The first victim was a Sri Lankan journalist who was assassinated just after midnight on 31 December 1999.
This was followed by the killing of a publisher in Bangladesh on 15 January. He had earlier received death threats.
The suicide by an Ethiopian Editor-in-Chief clearly related to the continued persecution by the Central Investigation Department on 18 January, was a tragic reminder that there are a variety of ways to silence journalists.
In Turkey, the savagely tortured body of a well-known woman writer was discovered along with dozens of others beneath hide-outs of a religious terror group.
Another journalist was shot dead in Somalia while reporting in Mogadishu’s Bakara market, on 26 January.
In Colombia, two journalists were assassinated in early February.
A photo journalist was kidnapped and later reportedly shot in Chechnya on 20 February.
On 24 February, a Uruguayan news director and radio station owner was murdered, apparently by a former public official who felt that his career had been ruined by the journalist. After he shot the journalist he killed himself.
