Journalists under threat: August’s 10 most urgent cases

Several journalists and TV crews have been threatened, insulted, or physically attacked. Journalism and journalists are under threat and need protection.

Following are August’s 10 most urgent cases:

1. Anton Hammerl (Libya)

In 2011, while working as a freelancer on the frontlines of the crisis in Libya, Hammerl, a photojournalist of South African and Austrian heritage, was shot and murdered by government troops. His body has not been given to his family in ten years, and no formal inquiry into his death has been conducted. This is something that the Justice for Anton movement is working to change.

2. Olivier Dubois (Mali)

In April, while seeking an interview with a local commander of the Al-Qaeda affiliated group Jamaa Nusrat al-Islam in the Malian province of Gao, French journalist and filmmaker Olivier Dubois was abducted by the Al-Qaeda affiliated group Jamaa Nusrat al-Islam. He is still in their possession months later.

3. Aleksandre Lashkarava (Georgia)

TV Pirveli camera operator died in Tbilisi days after he sustained a concussion and broken bones in his face, and underwent surgery as a result of an attack by anti-LGBTQ protestors while covering a demonstration in the capitol. Police have launched a criminal investigation into his death.

4. Danish Siddiqui (Afghanistan)

In July, a Reuters photojournalist was killed while reporting a battle between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents. He received a Pulitzer Prize for his work documenting the Rohingya Refugee Crisis in 2018. Since 1992, 53 journalists have been murdered in Afghanistan.

5. Qaraman Shukri (Iraq)

According to his mother, the Iraqi Kurdish photojournalist was sentenced to seven years in jail on June 24th in a secret tribunal without a lawyer present. He and his family want to file an appeal. Shukri remained silent throughout the trial about the laws he was convicted of breaking.

6. Alex Silveira (Brazil)

While documenting riots in Sao Paulo in 2000, Brazilian photojournalist Alex Silveira was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet by police, blinding him in his left eye. Since then, he has been battling for justice, and while the Supreme Court just decided in his favor, he is still waiting for a final judgment.

7. Sayed Abd Ellah (Egypt)

Several journalists have been imprisoned in Egypt since January 2019 pending a mass trial in which thousands of individuals have been charged with fake news and anti-state offenses. Over the years, his pre-trial imprisonment has been renewed several times.

8. Nooshin Jafari (Iran)

She was arrested in 2019 for posting anti-establishment propaganda on Twitter and began serving her four-year prison sentence this year on charges of “spreading anti-establishment propaganda” and “insulting sanctities.” She worked as a cinema and theatre photographer for several Iranian magazines and was arrested in 2019 for posting anti-establishment propaganda on Twitter.

9. Bülent Kılıç (Turkey)

While photographing police breaking up an LGBTQ Pride march in Istanbul on June 28, the main Turkey photographer for AFP was arrested by police. Officers punched him in the face with his camera and threw it on the ground, then kneeled on his neck and back as he fought to breathe before releasing him.

10. Magnificent Mndebele and CebelihleMbuyisa (Eswatini)

After covering the funeral of a police shooting victim, soldiers arrested two reporters from the South African news website New Frame in July. Soldiers threatened them at gunpoint, demanded they delete their camera footage and took them to the police station where they were interrogated and physically abused by police for hours before being released.

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