Silencing Journalism by Murder?

As journalists increasingly face growing threats of violence worldwide, Silencing Journalism by Murder? assembles and discusses six global case studies of high-profile journalists who were assassinated for reporting on controversial topics which they felt ethically bound to share with the public, raising critical questions surrounding democracy, censorship, and the various power dynamics between the media, the government, and the public. In this book, Amani Ismail and Gayane Torosyan position each case within local and global contexts to examine the factors that led to these murders. While each of the six selected cases is unique and condemnable in its own right, the authors identify both parallels and contrasts across them to consider both the individual stories and the ways in which they fit into a larger grim picture of the perils that journalists face. The cases are also examined in the context of the broader media landscape, tracing the evolution of traditional to contemporary digital journalism to form a deeper understanding of how this evolution has impacted violence against journalists. These stories of slain journalists from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Venezuela, Palestine, and Malta are illustrated not only as tributes to their ultimate sacrifice for a noble cause, but also as a call to action toward considering and implementing violence prevention measures for journalists around the globe.

Amani Ismail is Associate Dean for the School of Humanities and Creative Arts and programme lead for Mass Communications at the University of Hertfordshire’s branch campus in Cairo, Egypt. Gayane Torosyan is Professor of Media Studies at the State University of New York, Oneonta, USA,