Silencing Journalism by Murder: An Overview of Six Global Case Studies
By (Author) Amani Ismail
By (author) Gayane Torosyan
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Bloomsbury Academic
16th April 2026
United Kingdom
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
Human rights, civil rights
Violent crimes
Communication studies
Hardback
192
Width 152mm, Height 229mm
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 Hertfordshires branch campus in Cairo, Egypt.
Gayane Torosyan is an Independent Scholar of Journalism and Mass Communication. She has worked as a full-time news and public affairs producer and talk show host at the NPR affiliate Iowa Public Radio from 2000 to 2005 and as Associate Professor of Communication and Media at the State University of New York, USA.