In conjunction with The International Day to End Impunity, November 2, the One Free Press Coalition is highlighting cases of journalists murdered around the world, where those responsible for their murder have still not been held to account. There is impunity in 81% of journalist murders during the last 10 years, according to CPJ’s 2021 Global Impunity Index.

1. Roohollah Zam (Iran)

Iranian authorities executed journalist Zam by hanging in December of 2020 after sentencing him to death on anti-state charges for his coverage of 2017 protests. Intelligence agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) lured Zam out of exile to Iraq, where he was abducted in 2019, and taken to Iran.  

2. Tara Singh Hayer (Canada)

Regina Martínez Pérez (Credit Revista Proceso)

Hayer, publisher of Indo-Canadian Times, Canada’s largest and oldest Punjabi weekly, was shot dead in his home garage in Vancouver in 1998. Ten years prior, he had been partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair after an assassination attempt. In the months prior, Hayer let the police know he had received multiple threats.

3. Valério Luiz de Oliveira (Brazil)

The sports journalist and commentator at Radio Jornal was killed in July 2012 after being shot four times by an unidentified gunman on a motorcycle. The trials for the suspected perpetrators have been repeatedly delayed and were suspended in 2020, with no future court dates set.

4. Regina Martínez Pérez (Mexico)

Nikolai Andrushchenko (Credit Denis Usov)

Martínez, a veteran reporter at national magazine Proceso, known for her in-depth reporting on drug cartels and the links between organized crime and government officials, was killed in 2012 after covering several high-profile arrests. A 2021 report from A Safer World For The Truth found strong indications for obstruction of justice by local authorities in her case.

5. Nikolai Andrushchenko (Russia)

Veteran journalist Andrushchenko died in 2017 related to injuries sustained in a beating from unknown assailants, and there has been little progress in the investigation. He was known for his criticism of President Vladimir Putin and his investigative reports alleging corruption and human rights abuses. He had suffered similar attacks in the past.

6. Sardasht Osman (Iraq)

Osman, a contributor to multiple independent news sites, was found shot to death in 2010. Prior to his murder, he had received threatening phone calls telling him to stop writing about the Kurdistan Regional Government. Authorities claim he was killed by a member of extremist group Ansar al-Islam; however, CPJ and other press groups have said the report lacked credibility.

Ahmed Divela (Credit Tiger Eye Private Investigations)

7. Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela (Ghana)

Divela, a member of the investigative journalism outlet Tiger Eye Private Investigations, where he reported on issues such as sports, corruption and human rights, was shot by two unidentified men on a motorcycle in 2019. Divela had told CPJ in 2018 that people had attempted to attack him and that he feared for his life after a politician made comments about him on TV.

8. Sisay Fida (Ethiopia)

Sisay, a coordinator and reporter with the Oromia Broadcasting Network, was walking home from a wedding when he was shot and killed in May this year. There has been little progress in his case, and colleagues believe he was murdered in retaliation for his reporting.

9. Gauri Lankesh (India)

Unidentified assailants shot and killed Lankesh outside her home in Bangalore in 2017, as she returned from work. Lankesh published and edited Gauri Lankesh Patrike, a Kannada-language weekly tabloid known for its criticism of right-wing extremism and the establishment. While arrests have been made of those suspected to have ties to her killing, impunity remains.

10. Sagal Salad Osman (Somalia)

A university student and producer of a children’s program on state-run Radio Mogadishu, Osman was killed in 2016. She was leaving campus when three gunmen shot her in the head. Somalia ranks worst among countries for impunity in cases of journalist murders.

In light of growing reporting revealing the breadth and extent of the use of spyware to surveil journalists and governments weaponizing technology, the One Free Press Coalition chooses to focus its monthly “10 Most Urgent” list for October on cases of journalists who have been victims of surveillance or targeted by spyware, posing a threat to press freedom.

While surveillance of journalists is not a new phenomenon, the lengths to which bad actors will go to silence the press, and the rapid advancement of technology has exacerbated the problem.

Around the world, governments have used sophisticated spyware products designed to fight crime to target the press. Journalists say spyware has the potential to expose their sources, their movements and other private information that could be used to censor or obstruct them, or imperil them or their sources. CPJ has also found that these attacks often go hand in hand with other press freedom violations and hinders journalists’ ability to cover important stories on issues like politics and corruption.

Journalists can find CPJ resources on digital safety here and more reporting on spyware and press freedom here.

1. Omar Radi (Morocco)

Since 2018, Moroccan authorities have filed sex crimes charges against multiple independent journalists in the country in an effort to target them for their reporting. Investigative journalist Omar Radi is one of 180 journalists identified by nonprofit Forbidden Stories as targeted by surveillance spyware. This past July, he was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of sexual assault and undermining state security through espionage and illegally receiving foreign funding. 

Khadija Ismayilova (Credit IWMF)

2. Khadija Ismayilova (Azerbaijan)

A prominent investigative journalist, Khadija Ismayilova is known for her exposés of high-level government corruption and alleged ties between President Ilham Aliyev’s family and businesses. She was sentenced to prison in 2014 and served 538 days before her release. In a forensic analysis of her phone, Amnesty International detected multiple traces of activity that it linked to Pegasus spyware, dating from 2019 to 2021.

3. Sevinj Vagifgizi (Azerbaijan)

Sevinj Vagifgizi, a correspondent for the Berlin-based, Azerbaijan-focused independent media outlet Meydan TV, was targeted by Pegasus spyware from 2019 to 2021. She has been previously in Azerbaijani authorities’ crosshairs and was banned from leaving the country from 2015 to 2019. In 2019, she faced libel charges after she reported on people voting with government-issued pre-filled ballots. 

4. Szabolcs Panyi (Hungary)

Reports find that, in 2019, Pegasus spyware by President Viktor Orbán’s administration targeted Szabolcs Panyi among five Hungarian journalists, as conditions for independent journalism become increasingly grim in the country. Panyi is a journalist at Direkt36.hu, known for reporting on issues like government corruption.

5. Ricardo Calderón (Colombia)

Throughout 2019 and 2020, Ricardo Calderón, then director of the investigative team at newsmagazine Semana, was the target of threats, harassment and surveillance related to reporting on the Colombian military, including efforts to monitor journalists. This year the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ruled that Calderón faced “grave and imminent” danger from threats and surveillance by the Colombian military and other sources.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta (Courtesy of the subject)

6. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta (India)

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, a journalist and author, has faced protracted criminal and civil defamation suits, and was recently threatened with arrest. Amnesty International detected forensic indications connected to Pegasus spyware from early 2018 on his phone, when he had been writing about political parties using social media for political campaigning, and investigating a wealthy Indian business family’s foreign assets.

7. Jamal Khashoggi (Saudi Arabia)

Citizen Lab, a University of Toronto team studying media, security and human rights, found that Pegasus spyware had infected the phone of Saudi Arabian dissident Omar Abdulaziz, who was in close contact with Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi before his murder by Saudi operatives on October 2, 2018. Research has found that family and colleagues of journalists are often targets of surveillance.

8. Ismael Bojórquez and Andrés Villarreal (Mexico)

After Javier Valdez Cárdenas, founder of Mexican outlet Río Doce was murdered in 2017, Río Doce’s director and his colleague received infection attempts to their phones with Pegasus spyware, with some of the attempts claiming to have information about Valdez’s death.

9. Carmen Aristegui (Mexico)

Aristegui Noticias, the outlet run by one of Mexico’s most widely known reporters, has exposed numerous corruption scandals. Carmen Aristegui has been heavily targeted, alongside her son (a minor) with NSO spyware links between 2015-2016, according to Citizen Lab.

10. Ahmed Mansoor (UAE)

Researchers report that prominent political blogger Ahmed Mansoor has been targeted by hackers multiple times, starting in 2011, when CPJ documented threats and legal action in connection with his blog.

As the Taliban has asserted power over Afghanistan in recent weeks, media there face new and daunting challenges. On September 1, international media outlets worldwide unite as the One Free Press Coalition to publish this special edition of the global monthly “10 Most Urgent” list—with a focus on how everyone can help journalists under attack in Afghanistan right now. 

Engage communities and call on governments with these 10 urgent actions:

1. Commit to evacuate all Afghan journalists, media workers, media advocates and their families under threat.

One female journalist told CPJ that she had received threatening calls in recent days from the Taliban that said, “Your time is over.” Meanwhile, CPJ is investigating reports that Taliban militants searched the home of a Deutsche Welle editor, shot and killed one of their family members and seriously injured another.

2. Simplify and secure the process for visa application and collaborate with third countries when possible.

3. Establish safe corridors in Kabul to allow for the evacuation and relocation of all persons at risk, including journalists and media workers.

4. Ease visa restrictions for all Afghan journalists, media workers, media advocates and their families seeking asylum.

5. Ensure UN support for Afghan journalists as part of their “stay and deliver” agenda for humanitarian assistance and protection in Afghanistan.

6. Open country borders to allow for the safe passage of evacuees seeking relocation and future settlement.

7. Provide Afghan news organizations—including exile media—immediate ongoing core support for their news-gathering and operations.     

Militants have searched the homes of at least four journalists and news agency employees. Meanwhile, members of the Taliban have barred at least two female journalists from their jobs at the public broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan, and Taliban militants beat Babrak Amirzada, a video reporter with Pajhwok Afghan News, and Mahmood Naeemi, a camera operator with Ariana News, while they covered an anti-Taliban protest.

8. Create emergency funding for Afghan journalists and media workers who have left the country as well as those who remain in-country.

9. Join a local civilian or corporate effort, such as offering to provide transportation, meals or temporary housing for Afghan refugees.

10. Spread the word about organizations, such as CPJ and IWMF, that are providing assistance or are compiling lists of available resources.