On September 1, 2020 the Coalition launched the 19th monthly “10 Most Urgent” list, ranked in order of urgency and focused on missing journalists. Globally 64 journalists are missing, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which launched a #MissingNotForgotten campaign on August 30 to share their stories and to pressure authorities to continue investigating their disappearances. The pandemic has slowed or stopped several of the cases’ investigations.

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1. Prageeth Eknelygoda (Sri Lanka)

Journalist, cartoonist and columnist abducted 10.5 years ago after leaving his house. Prageeth Eknelygoda, a cartoonist and columnist for online news outlet Lanka eNews, was last seen by his wife and two teenage sons as he left his house for work 10.5 years ago. Ahead of the 2010 presidential election, staff of Lanka eNews faced intimidation for its opposition of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government. Last year the attorney general indicted seven individuals over Eknelygoda’s abduction, and the trial is ongoing. In the past six months, Eknelygoda’s wife, Sandya, said she believed witnesses in the case were being intimidated, and threats to her and surveillance of her family had increased.

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Daysi Lizeth Mina Huamán (credit Denia Mina)

2. Daysi Lizeth Mina Huamán (Peru)

Journalist’s belongings found days after her disappearance 7 months ago. Daysi Lizeth Mina Huamán was last seen waiting for a bus on January 26, on her way to meet her boyfriend after voting in Peru’s congressional elections and filing a report for television broadcaster Cable VRAEM in the central city of Ayacucho. About a week after the disappearance, family members found her identity card and other personal documents along the side of a road between the bus stop and her destination.

3. Farhad Hamo (Syria)

Freelance reporter abducted 5.5 years ago last seen being taken away from a prison. In December 2014, members of the Islamic State militant group abducted two freelance journalists working for the Kurdish broadcaster Rudaw TV. The journalists had been driving to interview a local political leader when armed men stopped the vehicle, examined the occupants’ phones and laptops and threatened them at gunpoint to drive to the town of Tel Hamis, where they were imprisoned. An Islamic State court sentenced them to death by beheading. Cameraman Massoud Aqeel, who was later released in a prisoner swap, last saw reporter Farhad Hamo being taken away from Raqqa’s prison in March 2015.

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Vladimir Legagneur (credit Fleurette Guerrier)

4. Vladijmir Legagneur (Haiti)

Investigation stalled 2.5 years after photojournalist’s disappearance. Freelance photojournalist Vladjimir Legagneur was last seen by his wife in March 2018 after he left their Port-au-Prince home. According to a colleague, Legagneur was working on an independent project in Grand-Ravine, known for high rates of violent gang activity. A police spokesperson said he “feared a fatal outcome” after skeletal remains and a hat were found that month near the site of Legagneur’s disappearance, but officials never announced conclusive results from collected evidence and DNA tests. There is no indication of any further investigation.

5. María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe (Mexico)

Newspaper journalist vanished almost 11 years ago after covering police abuse allegations. María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe, a mother of two, was last seen leaving her home in the central state of Michoacán in November 2009. She reported for regional news outlets, including Zamora-based daily El Diario de Zamora and regional daily Cambio de Michoacán, and tended to focus on organized crime and local corruption, sometimes omitting her byline out of awareness of possible reprisal. In the weeks before she vanished, Aguilar’s coverage included police abuse allegations and the military’s anti-cartel efforts. According to CPJ data, at least 14 journalists are currently missing in Mexico.

6. Jean Bigirimana (Burundi)

Reporter feared to be dead after 4 years missing. Jean Bigirimana has not been seen or heard from since July 2016, after he received a call from a source in the country’s national intelligence service and left his home in Bujumbura. The reporter for independent weekly newspaper Iwacu formerly worked for the pro-government radio station Rema FM. Sources report the journalist was arrested by intelligence agents and accused of writing about exiled Burundian journalists living in Rwanda, and family members fear Bigirimana is dead. Four fellow Iwacu reporters, also targeted by government authorities, are currently serving a 2.5-year prison sentence.

7. Ibraimo Mbaruco (Mozambique)

Journalist went missing after leaving work 5 months ago. A reporter and news presenter for the Palma Community Radio broadcaster in the northern Cabo Delgado province, Ibraimo Mbaruco disappeared on April 7 after leaving work and then texting a colleague saying he was “surrounded by soldiers.” The journalist’s brother told CPJ he reported the disappearance to local police and the provincial prosecutor’s office but had yet to receive any information about Ibraimo’s whereabouts and did not know if he was still alive. To date, the government has not launched a credible investigation. Mbaruco was also part of the Sekelekani network, a local civil society organization that trains citizen journalists.

8. Oralgaisha Omarshanova (Kazakhstan)

Investigative reporter last seen during business trip 13.5 years ago. In March 2007, Oralgaisha Omarshanova, who uses the pen name Oralgaisha Zhabagtaikyzy, wrote about ethnic clashes in rival regions of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s financial capital. On a business trip there, colleagues from Astana-based independent weekly Zakon i Pravosudiye (meaning “Law and Justice”), last saw Omarshanova, director of the anti-corruption department, getting into a vehicle. The following month, her brother said at a press conference that, in the weeks prior to her disappearance, Omarshanova had received several death threats via telephone warning her to stop reporting. 

9. Azory Gwanda (Tanzania)

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Samir Kassab (via CPJ)

Investigation needed for rural reporter missing 3 years. The Tanzanian government has failed to conduct a credible investigation since Azory Gwanda, a freelancer who had been investigating mysterious killings in his rural community, went missing in November 2017. In a BBC interview in June 2019, Tanzania’s foreign minister said the journalist was among several people who had “disappeared and died”; however, the minister later issued a clarification saying his statements were taken out of context and that he did not know whether the journalist was alive or dead. Authorities have not responded to CPJ’s repeated requests for updates in the case.

10. Samir Kassab (Syria)

Among several unresolved cases in Syria, foreign journalist missing 7 years. Samir Kassab, a Lebanese photographer working for the Abu Dhabi-based broadcaster Sky News Arabia, disappeared in October 2013 while reporting alongside Mauritanian reporter Iszhak Ould Mokhtar in Aleppo. Kassab’s fiancée told CPJ in 2019 that no group had claimed responsibility for the journalists’ abduction. At least nine journalists are currently missing in Syria, a country that also claims the highest number of foreign journalists missing. CPJ recently helped 60 Syrian journalists and their families escape dangerous conditions and resettle in Europe.

On August 3, 2020 the Coalition launched the 18th monthly “10 Most Urgent” list (ranked in order of urgency), calling attention to the most pressing cases of journalists under attack for pursuing the truth. The One Free Press Coalition joins nearly 200 groups calling for worldwide release of journalists in detention during the pandemic. In Honduras in July, David Romero Ellner died from complications related to Covid-19 while serving a prison sentence on defamation charges. Under recent legislation that decriminalized defamation, Romero would not have received a 10-year prison sentence.

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1. Austin Tice (Syria)

Eight years without updates regarding American reporter who disappeared in Syria. This month marks eight years since freelance American photojournalist Austin Tice went missing while reporting on the civil war in Syria. The then-31-year-old had contributed to The Washington Post, McClatchy publications and Al-Jazeera English. Tice’s family believes he is still alive, and the U.S. State Department is also operating under the assumption that Tice is still alive. The F.B.I. has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his return.

2. Maria Ressa (Philippines)

Editor on trial exemplifies Filipino government’s silencing of independent media. U.S.-Filipino dual citizen Maria Ressa returned to court July 30 for a second cyber libel case, after a June 15 criminal conviction stemming from an article published in 2012. Her privately owned news website, Rappler, had reported about a local businessman’s alleged ties to a former judge. Ressa and her former colleague Reynaldo Santos Jr. were each ordered to pay $7,950 and serve at most six years in jail; all of that is pending appeal. In July more than 70 organizations launched a campaign and petition supporting independent media under attack in the Philippines.

3. Azimjon Askarov (Kyrgyzstan)  

Medical neglect caused death of journalist serving life sentence. Award-winning journalist Azimjon Askarov died in prison at age 69 in July. Family members had long pled for his release citing deteriorating health, including fever and inability to walk in his final weeks, though authorities refused to administer a Covid-19 test. The human rights reporter had served 10 years of a life sentence, which was repeatedly appealed and upheld, for trumped-up charges that included incitement to ethnic hatred and complicity in the murder of a police officer. He was the country’s only imprisoned journalist and the first killed since 2007.

4. Roohollah Zam (Iran) 

Journalist planning to appeal death sentence. Amad News manager and activist Roohallah Zam was dealt a death sentence on June 30. He had been working for the popular anti-government news channel on the messaging app Telegram when intelligence agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arrested him last October. They brought 17 charges including espionage, working against the Islamic Republic with governments of Israel, the U.S. and France and spreading corruption which is punishable by execution. His lawyer says they plan to appeal.

5. Agnès Ndirubusa and the team at Iwacu (Burundi)

Court denies appeal for four journalists serving 2.5 years. In June, Burundi courts rejected an appeal in the case of Agnès Ndirubusa, head of Iwacu’s political desk, and colleagues Christine Kamikazi, Egide Harerimana and Térence Mpozenzi. The four were arrested in October while covering clashes in the Bubanza Province for one of the country’s last independent outlets. The court convicted them in January of attempting to undermine state security, fined them each $530 and sentenced them to 2.5 years in prison. 

6. Svetlana Prokopyeva (Russia)

Journalist describes harassment and conviction as intimidation. Freelance journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva was found guilty on July 6 of “justifying terrorism” in a brief 2018 commentary about repressive governments radicalizing young people. She described the charges as an “act of intimidation.” A regional correspondent for the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Russia, Prokopyeva was fined $7,000, her computer and cellphone were confiscated not to be returned, her home was raided and her bank accounts frozen.

7. Aasif Sultan (India)

Journalist jailed two years without trial. August 27 marks two years behind bars for Aasif Sultan, a reporter who was charged months after his 2018 arrest with “complicity” in “harboring known terrorists.” Communications blackouts in Kashmir have repeatedly delayed hearings in the case. Sultan wrote a cover story for the Kashmir Narrator on a slain Kashmiri militant, whose killing by Indian security forces set off a wave of anti-government demonstrations in Kashmir in July 2016. He has been repeatedly interrogated and asked to reveal his sources by police.

8. Omar Radi (Morocco)

Independent journalist jailed after repeated interrogations and intimidation. After summoning him for interrogation for the 10th time, Moroccan authorities transferred Omar Radi to court and then to a Casablanca prison in July on charges of rape, sexual assault, receiving foreign funding and collaborating with foreign intelligence. A reporter for the independent Le Desk news website, Radi’s arrest comes after authorities repeatedly detained and interrogated him on an array of unrelated charges and allegedly hacked his phone.

9. Solafa Magdy (Egypt)

Prison conditions threaten journalist’s health and safety from Covid-19. Freelance reporter Solafa Magdy appeared in court with her husband last month, where she received another 45-day trial extension. She has experienced medical neglect and inhumane conditions alongside her husband in an Egypt prison. The situation heightens her risk of contracting Covid-19, like an Egyptian journalist who contracted the virus and died in pretrial detention in July. Her case has been repeatedly delayed since arrest last November for covering immigration and human rights in Cairo.

10. Jamal Khashoggi (Saudi Arabia)

Quest for government information persists nearly two years after journalist’s killing. In July CPJ submitted a brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia calling on the U.S. intelligence community to confirm or deny the existence of documents that may provide information on its awareness of threats to Jamal Khashoggi prior to his murder. Since the Washington Post columnist was brazenly killed inside Istanbul’s Saudi consulate in 2018, the U.S. and UN have not heeded calls for an independent criminal investigation into the Saudi crown prince’s potential involvement.

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On July 1, 2020 the Coalition launched the 17th monthly “10 Most Urgent” list (ranked in order of urgency), calling attention to the most pressing cases of journalists under attack for pursuing the truth.

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1. Maria Ressa (Philippines)

Filipino-U.S. dual citizen sentenced in cyber libel case. On June 15, a Manila court convicted Maria Ressa, editor of the privately owned Rappler news website, and Reynaldo Santos, a former researcher at the outlet, of cyber libel. The criminal offense requires each journalist to pay $7,950 in fines and moral damages as well as serve a jail term of six months to six years. Both are free on bail pending their appeal. The case arose from a public interest article Rappler published in 2012 about a local businessman’s alleged ties to a former judge, who was later impeached for corruption, and purported links to drug and human trafficking rings.

2. Azimjon Askarov (Kyrgyzstan) 

Award-winning human rights reporter imprisoned 10 years. June 15 marked ten years since ethnic Uzkek Azimjon Askarov was arrested on trumped-up charges that included incitement to ethnic hatred and complicity in the murder of a police officer. A Kyrgyz court heard the final appeal in his case in May and upheld his life sentence. His health is deteriorating in detention, with limited access to medication and mistreatment by prison officials. His wife, Khadicha Askarova, has written to Kyrgyzstan’s president pleading for his release. 

3. Solafa Magdy (Egypt)

Nearly four months without updates from imprisoned journalist in deteriorating health. No one has received news from freelance reporter Solafa Magdy since March 9. She has been imprisoned alongside her husband for six months and endured deliberate medical neglect while at heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 due to overcrowding and inhumane conditions in Egypt’s prisons. Officials have again delayed trial for charges of “membership of a banned group” and “spreading false news” for her multimedia reporting on human rights and illegal immigration.

4. Abdulkhaleq Amran, Akram al-Waleedi, Hareth Hameed and Tawfiq al-Mansouri (Yemen)

Four journalists detained five years, now sentenced to death. On April 11, Yemeni journalists Abdulkhaleq Amran, Akram al-Waleedi, Hareth Hameed and Tawfiq al-Mansouri were sentenced to death by the Ansar Allah group, known as the Houthis, after nearly five years in detention. The journalists were charged with spreading false news “in support of the crimes of Saudi aggression and its allies against the Republic of Yemen.” In June, the UN joined over 150 organizations calling for their release. Their lawyer plans to appeal.

5. Jean Bigirimana (Burundi)

Four years pass without information regarding journalist’s disappearance. July 22 marks four years since reporter Jean Bigirimana went missing in the middle of the day after leaving his home in Bujumbura. He had received a phone call from a source in the country’s national intelligence service. He was working as a newspaper and online journalist with the independent Iwacu Press Group and previously with the pro-government radio station Rema FM. He has not been seen or heard from since 2016.

6. Norma Sarabia Garduza (Mexico)

Investigation idling in case of journalist murdered at her home one year ago. June 11 marked one year since unknown attackers shot and killed reporter Norma Sarabia in her Huimanguillo residence, yet there has been little movement in the investigation announced on Twitter by the state attorney general’s office at the time. Sarabia, 46, was a correspondent in the Tabasco town near the border with Guatemala for newspapers Diario Presente and Tabasco HOY. She is one of 54 journalists killed in Mexico between 1992 and 2020.

7. Mohamed Monir (Egypt)

Journalist in poor health being held in pretrial detention without court date. Plainclothes security officers in Giza arrested veteran journalist and freelance columnist Mohamed Monir on June 15 and ordered pretrial detention for 15 days, a period that can be renewed or extended at the court’s request. Egypt’s national security prosecutor charged Monir with joining a terrorist group, spreading false news and misusing social media. The 65-year-old suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and severe heart problems. He had recently written for Al Jazeera and criticized the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

8. Samuel Wazizi (Samuel Ajiekah Abuwe) (Cameroon) 

Officials reveal journalist died in custody last August. In June, Cameroonian military announced that news anchor Samuel Wazizi died last August, days after being transferred from police to military custody and held incommunicado. They denied any torturous treatment and alleged that Wazizi died of “severe sepsis.” Lawyers say he was accused of hosting separatist fighters on his farm, an allegation he dismissed. He had worked as a freelance photographer and cameraman as well as a news anchor for privately-owned broadcaster Chillen Muzik and TV (CMTV) covering military atrocities.

9. Abdulmumin Gadzhiev (Russia)

Authorities bring additional allegations against editor in pretrial detention. Since his arrest on terrorism charges in June 2019, authorities have also charged Abdulmumin Gadzhiev with participation in an extremist organization and extended his pretrial detention. The new allegation could add 10 years in prison to the potential 20 years Gadzhiev faces on the original charges. He had been working as editor of the religious section of the independent Chernovik newspaper.

10. Jamal Khashoggi (Saudi Arabia)

Calls for continued investigation into journalist’s death at the hands of government. Democrats in the U.S. House of Representative are reportedly working on new legislation to push for the release of secret findings regarding the full extent of Saudi Arabia’s role in Jamal Khashoggi’s killing. The Washington Post columnist died inside Istanbul’s Saudi consulate in 2018. Calls remain for the executive branch to release an intelligence report as well as for an independent criminal investigation and probe into the crown prince’s ordering of the extrajudicial killing.

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