Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009media support workers killedbased on any forensic investigation. Thelandlord of the house ordered the burntshell bulldozed and cleared within daysof the fire.On February 25, then-Public ProsecutorAlphonse Dinard Mokondziappointed Jean Michel Opo, an investigatingmagistrate, to oversee aninquiry. “A man has died in a fire; wewant to know whether it was of criminalor accidental origin,” Mokondzitold CPJ. The prosecutor’s office tookan interest in the case because Ossébiwas a journalist and “there is a lot ofsuspicion,” he said.Just four days before the fire, Ossébiwrote a story accusing officialswith Congo’s national petroleum authorityof improperly negotiating a loanwith a French bank, according to CPJresearch. Neither the government northe officials named in the story, includingDenis Christel Sassou Nguesso, thepresident’s son, publicly commented onthe accusations, according to local journalists.Alain Akouala, the government’sminister of communication, declined tocomment when contacted by CPJ.Ossébi was noted for his extensivecoverage of an international lawsuitscrutinizing the private assets of theruling families of Congo, Gabon, andEquatorial Guinea in France. TransparencyInternational, an anticorruptionorganization that organized thelawsuit, confirmed the journalist’s interestin becoming a plaintiff.Opo, the magistrate appointed tooversee the investigation, told CPJ inMay 2009 that a police commissionhad submitted a report without witnessstatements. He was appointed toanother position that month. A newinvestigative magistrate, Jean-LouisBitumbu, declined to comment on theinvestigation.RUSSIA: 2Shafig Amrakhov, RIA 51January 5, 2009, MurmanskOn December 30, 2008, an unidentifiedassailant shot and seriouslywounded Amrakhov, editor of the onlineregional news agency RIA 51, inhis apartment building in the northerncity of Murmansk, the independentnews agency Regnum reported. Theassailant shot the journalist severaltimes in the head, using what is knownas a non-lethal traumatic pistol, the localpress reported.According to local press reports,Amrakhov was conscious immediatelyafter the attack and managed to give hisfamily details. He was taken to a Murmanskhospital, where he underwentseveral hours of surgery. He slippedinto a coma after the surgery and diedon January 5, Regnum reported.Several local reports said the choiceof weapon suggested the attacker intendedto intimidate the journalistbut not necessarily kill him. On January22, Gen. Vitaly Fedotov, head of theMurmansk region police department,told the local channel TV-21 that investigatorshad ruled out Amrakhov’sjournalism as a motive. He would notdisclose what investigators believed themotive was.The Moscow-based Glasnost DefenseFoundation said the journalistsuffered a concussion in a 1997 attackin which an unknown assailantstruck him with a blunt object in theentrance to his apartment building. InFebruary 2008, Amrakhov publiclyprotested the authorities’ decision todeny him accreditation for then-PresidentVladimir Putin’s last press conferenceas head of state. In his publicletter, carried by local media, he criticizedthe economic policies of MurmanskGov. Yuri Yevdokimov.Vyacheslav YaroshenkoKorruptsiya i PrestupnostJune 29, 2009, Rostov-on-Don3 m e d i a support w o r k e r s killedPAKISTAN: 1Mian Iqbal ShahPeshawar Press ClubDecember 22, 2009, PeshawarShah, 50, an employee of the PeshawarPress Club, was among those killedwhen a suicide bomber attempting toenter the property set off an explosiveconscious with a head wound in theentrance to his apartment building.He was hospitalized with skull andbrain trauma, underwent surgery, andspent five days in a coma, his deputy,Sergei Sleptsov, told CPJ at the time.Sleptsov told Russian news outlets inJune that he believed Yaroshenko wasattacked in retaliation for the newspaper’swork. Korruptsiya i Prestupnost, anindependent paper whose title translatesto “Corruption and Crime,” had reportedon corruption allegations involvingRostov law enforcement agencies.Rostov law enforcement officialsgave conflicting accounts of what happenedto Yaroshenko in April. Immediatelyafter the journalist was hospitalized,Rostov police said he was injuredin a fistfight on a local street, GrigoryBochkaryov, a local correspondent forthe Russian service of Radio Free Europe/RadioLiberty, told CPJ. Policelater said that Yaroshenko had injuredhimself by falling down the stairs inthe entrance of his apartment building,according to Bochkaryov.On June 29, 2009, Yaroshenko, editorin-chiefof the Rostov-on-Don newspaperKorruptsiya i Prestupnost, diedof head injuries he received in an April30 attack, in which he was found undevice.A police officer, the bomber, anda bystander were killed along with Shah,an accountant and cashier at the club,according to news accounts. Twenty-sixpeople were reported injured.The explosion occurred at 11:40a.m. when Riazuddin Khan, a policeconstable providing security for theclub, halted the bomber near the gateto the property, club members said.282283