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List of journalists killed in Europe

This is a list of journalists killed in Europe (as a continent), divided by country.

While journalists in the European Union (EU) generally work in good conditions, there are cases of murdered journalists, and many of them remain unpunished. This list includes non-EU countries within Europe such as Turkey, Ukraine and Russia.

Abkhazia

  • Alexandra Tuttle, correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, was killed on 22 September 1993 when the military plane on which she was flying was hit by an Abkhazian ground-to-air missile.
  • Andrey Soloviev, Soviet war photographer for ITAR-TASS was killed by a sniper in Sukhumi on 27 September 1993.
  • Georgy Chanya, correspondent for Resonants was killed on 26 May 1998 while reporting fighting between Abkhazian rebels and Georgian guerrilla fighters near Gali.

Armenia

Austria

Azerbaijan

  • Photographer reporter Chingiz Mustafayev for Democratic Russia Press Agency was killed on 15 June 1992, while filming fighting between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
  • Camera operator Adil Bunyatov for Reuters TV and the Turan News Agency was killed on 17 March 1995, while covering a military offense on a rebel police unit.
  • Elmar Huseynov, founder and editor of the opposition weekly news magazine Monitor, was gunned down in his apartment building in Baku on 2 March 2005.
  • Newspaper editor Novruzali Mamedov, of the now-defunct Talysh minority newspaper Talyshi Sado, died in a prison hospital on 17 August 2009. His death was condemned by Baku-based Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety as government neglect.
  • Freelance reporter Rafiq Tağı, who contributed to the Azerbaijani branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was stabbed on 19 November 2011 and died in a Baku hospital on 23 November.
  • Rasim Aliyev, chairman of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety, was beaten up on 8 August 2015 by football fans for his opinion against one of the players. He died from his wounds the following day.

Belarus

  • Dzmitry Zavadski disappeared and was presumably murdered on 7 July 2000. On 14 March 2002 four people were sentenced for his abduction, but not for the murder, as the body had never been found, and while the performers may have been condemned, the masterminds are still at large. He was declared dead on 28 November 2003.
  • Veronika Cherkasova, murdered by an unknown assailant in 2004.
  • Aleh Byabenin was found hanged in the stairwell of his summer home in Minsk on 3 September 2010, but no suicide note was found.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Twenty-five journalists were killed in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav Wars between 1991 and 1995:

  • On 9 April 1992 , Bosnian journalist working for the Oslobođenje, was killed in his office in Zvornik by Serbian soldiers
  • On 29 May 1993 a humanitarian convoy was assailed near Gornji Vakuf. Italian journalist Guido Puletti was killed among fellow pacifists Sergio Lana and Fabio Moreni, while two others escaped. Hanefija Prijić (Paraga), the leader of the group of Bosnian soldiers responsible for the killings, was condemned to 13 years in prison.
  • Dominique Lonneux, Belgian freelance cameraman working for a Mexican TV, was wounded and died on 2 June 1993 in western Herzegovina when the UNPROFOR convoy he was travelling with was attacked.
  • Tasar Omer, Turkish freelance journalist, was killed on 27 June 1993 by a sniper in Sarajevo at a funeral.
  • On 28 January 1994, , and , three Italian journalist working for RAI, were killed in Mostar by a mortar.
  • On 1 May 1994, journalists Bryan Brinton and Francis William Tomasic were killed, and novelist William T. Vollmann was injured, by a landmine near Mostar.
  • Sasa Kolevski, cameraman for the Bosnian Serb Television in Banja Luka, disappeared on 23 September 1995 in Mount Ozren, together with the station driver Goran Pejcinovic, whose body was returned to Bosnian Serb authorities on 25 October.

Bulgaria

  • Radio presenter and author Bobi Tsankov was shot dead in central Sofia on 5 January 2010.
  • Victoria Marinova, a television journalist who reported on an investigation into alleged corruption involving European Union funds, was murdered in Bulgaria's northern town of Ruse. Her body was found on 6 October 2018. A Bulgarian man, Severin Krasimirov was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in jail. Prosecutors said the crime was "linked to sexual motives and had no links to the profession of the victim."

Croatia

According to the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) at least 14 Croatian reporters, cameramen and technicians were killed in Croatia during the Yugoslav Wars; according to Balkan Insight 13 foreign reporters were also killed:

Cyprus

Denmark

France

Georgia

  • David Bolkvadze, Georgian journalist working for Worldwide Television News, was killed in Khobi on 28 October 1993 while reporting the Georgian Civil War.
  • Antonio Russo, Italian journalist working for Radio Radicale, was killed in Ujarma on 16 October 2000.
  • Giorgi Sanaia, anchor for Rustavi-2 was killed in his apartment in Tbilisi on 26 July 2001.
  • Stan Storimans, Dutch cameraman for RTL TV, was killed in Gori on 12 August 2008, during the Russo-Georgian War. According to the Dutch government he was killed by a Russian cluster bomb.
  • Alexander Lashkarava, Georgian journalist was found dead on 11 July 2021 after having been beaten in an anti-LGBT attack. The killing of Alexander Lashkarava was condemned by the Director-General of the UNESCO Audrey Azoulay in a press-release published on the 13th of July. According to global monitoring on the safety of journalists by the Observatory of Killed journalist, Lashkarava is the 1st and only  media professional killed in Georgia in 2021.

Germany

Greece

Ireland

  • Crime reporter Veronica Guerin was murdered by drug lords on 26 June 1996.

Italy

Eleven journalists were killed in Italy by mafias or terrorist organizations:

Kazakhstan

  • Askhat Sharipjanov, an editor of the website Navigator, was hit by a car in Almaty on 20 July 2004. The driver was found guilty of traffic violations and careless driving that resulted in a person's death, but Sharipjanov's colleagues believed it was contract murder.
  • Oralgaisha Omarshanova, disappeared in 2007, body discovered in 2021.
  • Gennady Pavlyuk (pen name: Ibragim Rustambek), editor-in-chief of Bely Parokhod, died in a hospital Almaty on 22 December 2009, six days after falling from a building with his hands and legs bound with tape. Two people were condemned for his murder.

Kosovo

In Kosovo 15 journalists were killed or went missing between August 1998 and May 2005, during and in the aftermath of the Kosovo War. Among them at least seven Serbian journalists disappeared and are believed to have been killed.

  • Radio journalist Djuro Slavuj and driver Ranko Perenic, two Serbs working for Radio Pristina, were on assignment on 21 August 1998, when they were abducted by a group of armed people with insignia of the Kosovo Liberation Army and disappeared.
  • , a Kosovo journalist working for the newspaper Bujku, was killed on 2 December 1998 in Pristina.
  • On 11 January 1999, Enver Maloku, a Kosovo Albanian journalist, writer and head of the Kosovo Information Centre, was shot in Pristina.
  • One Italian and one German journalist, Gabriel Grüner and Volker Krämer, were shot on 13 June 1999, near the village of Dulje, by Yugoslavian soldiers. Krämer died immediately, Grüner died later in a hospital in Tetovo, Macedonia.
  • On 10 September 2000 Shefki Popova, an ethnic Albanian journalist working for the Rilindja newspaper was killed at the entrance of his house in Vučitrn. He was also active in local politics and in international cooperation. Motive remains unconfirmed.
  • Journalist Bekim Kastrati was killed on 19 October 2001 while he was in his car with two other men: one of them was also killed and one was wounded. The motive is unconfirmed.
  • Xhemail Mustafa, Kosovo journalist and advisor to the president Ibrahim Rugova, was killed by two unknown gunmen on 23 November 2000 in front of his apartment in Pristina.
  • Bardhyl Ajeti was shot on 3 June 2005 in Kosovo and died from his wounds in an hospital in Milan on 28 June. No one has been condemned.

Latvia

  • Gundars Matiss died on 28 November 2001, from a brain hemorrhage after being attacked on 15 November.
  • Grigorijs Ņemcovs, 2010

Lithuania

  • Vitas Lingis was shot dead on 12 October 1993.

Malta

Montenegro

Netherlands

Poland

  • 35-year-old TV journalist from Łódź went missing on 16 December 1986. Presumed homicide.
  • Jarosław Ziętara a 24-year-old investigative journalist for regional daily newspaper ' was kidnapped on 1 September 1992 in Poznań and been killed in connection with his reporting on alleged corruption.
  • 31-year-old local TV journalist from Łódź Iwona Mogiła-Lisowska went missing on 10 November 1992. Presumed homicide.
  • Investigative journalist Marek Pomykała was kidnaped and killed in 29 April 1997 in Sanok. In 2022, Tadeusz Pająk, a former police officer, was arrested for murder. According to information from the prosecutor's office, the motive for the journalist's murder was his investigation into the suspect's connection to two murders in the 1980s.
  • 52-year-old journalist based in Toruń Aleksandra Walczak went missing in 12 March 2004. Presumed homicide.
  • Investigative journalist Łukasz Masiak was beaten to death in Mlawa on 14 June 2015.
  • Journalist of Good Morning TVN TV programme Paweł Kiljański was killed in 27 March 2022. The search for the suspect is ongoing. An Interpol Red Notice has been issued.

Romania

  • La Cinq reporter Jean-Louis Calderon died crushed by an army tank on the streets of Bucharest on 22 December 1989, while covering the uprising against the communist government.
  • VTM reporter Danny Huwé was killed by snipers on 23 December 1989, while entering Bucharest by car.

Russia

Hundreds of journalists have been killed in Russia since the 1990s.

Serbia

Slovakia

  • On 25 February 2018, the Slovak investigative reporter Ján Kuciak, 27, and his partner were found shot dead in their home in Veľká Mača, western Slovakia. "As a reporter for online news website Aktuality.sk, Kuciak wrote about serious economic crimes and illegal activities involving several high profile Slovak businessmen and their relations with top politicians", EUobserver reports, adding that "Kuciak was also working on a story linking prime minister Robert Fico's assistant with an Italian businessman in Slovakia. Among numerous tax frauds and public fund scandals, he covered the Panama Papers". The murder led to multiple protests organized under the "For decent Slovakia" movement.

Slovenia

South Ossetia

  • Alexander Klimchuk (head of Caucasus Images) and Grigol Chikhladze (a freelance and member of Caucasus Images) were killed on 10 August 2008 when they tried to enter Tskhinvali.

Spain

Sweden

Turkey

United Kingdom

Ukraine

See also

References