28 June 2006
SWEDISH PHOTOJOURNALIST MURDERED
One day after militia leaders signed a peace accord with the transitional federal government in Somalia, Swedish photojournalist Martin Adler was shot and killed by an unidentified assailant in the capital, Mogadishu on 23 June 2006, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
Adler was covering a demonstration organised by the Islamic Courts Union, a militia that wrested control of the capital from warlords on 5 June. According to an Associated Press reporter who witnessed the attack, Adler was filming demonstrators burning U.S. and Ethiopian flags when a hooded man came up behind Adler and shot him in the back at close range before disappearing into the crowd.
Adler was a freelancer for several media organisations, including Channel 4 and the Swedish newspaper "Aftonbladet". He won many awards for his work, including a Rory Peck Award in 2004 and an Amnesty International Media Award in 2001. He leaves a wife and two daughters who live in Sweden.
CPJ and RSF note that the murder may have been fueled by anti-Western sentiment, including reports that the warlords who used to rule the capital were financed by the C.I.A to capture suspected al-Qaeda members in Somalia. The Islamic Courts Union, whose stated goal is to restore Sharia law in Mogadishu and to end impunity and fighting on the streets, strongly opposes the transitional government's intention to invite foreign peacekeepers into the country.
In 2005, two other journalists were killed in Somalia. In February, BBC producer Kate Peyton was murdered in Mogadishu days after entering the country to cover the peace process. Six months later, local radio journalist Duniya Muhyadin Nur was shot dead while covering a protest near the capital.
Visit these links:
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18118
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/africa/somalia23june06na.html
- IFJ: http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=4011&Language=EN
- International News Safety Institute: http://www.newssafety.com/casualties/somalia.htm
- BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5108958.stm
- Tribute to Martin Adler: http://www.rorypecktrust.org/Obituaries/Adler.htm
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