Obituary
Brian SewellSaturday 19 September, 2015
The Evening Standard art critic Brian Sewell, who was probably more famous than most of the artists he wrote about, has died of cancer at the age of 84. Sewell, son of the composer Peter Warlock and friend and student of the traitor art historian Anthony Blunt, had been ill since last year. The owner of one of the most distinctive voices - both speaking and writing - in public life, Sewell was dismissive of modern British artists including Hockney, "a vulgar prankster", Banksy, "should have been put down at birth", and Hirst, "f****** dreadful". He once declared that women could never be great artists - perhaps because of childbearing - and described Tracey Emin as trivial. The Standard said of him: “Simply, Brian was the nation’s best art critic, best columnist and the most brilliant and sharpest writer in recent times. "His wit was always rapier sharp but his kindness knew no limits. He was a legend in the world of journalism and the arts. Brian will be deeply missed by all of his colleagues who have thought of Brian more as family than a friend.” The paper has put together a retrospective of his work on its website that's well worth a read here Catherine Riley
Tuesday 25 August, 2015
The sports journalist Catherine Riley has died of cancer. She was 48. Riley worked at the Independent and spent a year on the relaunch of the Sporting Life before moving to the Times. While she was there, she took a detour from her sporting career path for a brief spell as property editor before going back to familiar territory as assistant sports editor. She left the paper in 2008 and returned to her native Devon, where she freelanced before becoming the co-ordinator of Exeter City's Football in the Community programme. Her cancer was diagnosed two years ago through an innovative thermal imaging technique. She had no family history of breast cancer and no particular symptoms, but had volunteered for the test because of her journalistic connection with one of the women running the scan centre. The discovery - which Riley described in an article for the local Express and Echo as the centre's first "win" - meant that she was able to have prompt treatment, and last year things were looking hopeful. But the cancer returned to her womb last month and she died suddenly yesterday morning. She leaves her partner, Jamie Vittles, and an 11-year-old daughter, Dulcie. Gameoldgirl's Notebook: A personal tribute page from those who loved her Journalists all over the world
July 14, 2015 Sixty journalists and media support workers died doing their jobs in the first half of this year, according to statistics released today by the International News Safety Institute.
The figures, as analysed by the Cardiff School of Journalism, suggest that France is the most dangerous place in the world - worse even than Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Sudan. This is, of course, the effect of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January. SubScribe is attempting to document deaths on this page, but recognises the invidious nature of giving greater presentation to our own national newspaper journalists and Western victims of Isis than to those further afield. Unfortunately, in many cases, details are hard to come by. We are grateful to Richard Sambrook, chairman of INSI and professor of journalism at Cardiff University, for allowing SubScribe to reproduce this infographic. Editor's blog: Death and dishonour Endell Laird
July 8, 2015 Journalists were on strike and assistant editor Endell Laird and his news editor colleague John Burrowes were trying to produce the Sunday Mail with a handful of colleagues in January 1971 when first reports came in of an incident at Ibrox. As the scale of the disaster became apparent - 66 died - the pair ripped up the paper, stopped the presses and produced a special edition, helped eventually by three subs who had been at the ground and who reported for work minus their shoes,which had been lost in the melee. Laird, who has died aged 81, went on to edit the paper and its big sister the Daily Record, where his achievements included raising £4m to build the country's first children's hospice, battling (sometimes successfully) with proprietor Robert Maxwell, and presiding over an average circulation of nearly 800,000. The paper now sells less than a quarter of that. You can read an obituary from the Scotsman here and tributes from the Daily Record here
Arthur Brittenden
June 25, 2015 Arthur Brittenden insisted that he wanted no memorial service, nor even a funeral - but he couldn't stop former colleagues toasting his memory at a special lunch at the Garrick. Rupert Murdoch was joined by a flong of former editors - including Charlie Wilson, Kelvin McKenzie, Nick Lloyd, Eve Pollard, Charlie Garside, Robin Esser and Brian Macarthur - in paying tribute to the giant of Fleet Street, who died aged 90 in April. You can read a report of the event from Press Gazette here and obituaries here and here and here and here
Dickie Beeston
February 23, 2015 Dickie Beeston, Telegraph foreign correspondent and friend of Kim Philby, has died aged 88.
Two years ago he experienced what no parent should have to endure - the death of a son, in this case the former Times foreign editor Rick Beeston (see below). The tributes then flowed thick and fast, as they do now for the man who passed down an extraordinary talent and passion for journalism. For links to obituaries and tributes, plus a pair of pictures to delight, please click here David Carr
February 13, 2015 The New York Times columnist David Carr died yesterday after collapsing in the newsroom. He was 58. The name may be unfamiliar to many in Britain, but his approach to journalism stands up anywhere.
The video clip above is from a documentary called Page One, made in 2011, about how the New York Times was faring in the internet age. Here we see Carr defending his heritage in conversation with the founders of Vice, which describes itself as "an ever-expanding galaxy of immersive, investigative, uncomfortable, and occasionally uncouth journalism" and which had been uncomplimentary about mainstream media reporting. It's worth watching for the pure-gold putdown at the end. For those interested in learning more about this man, a quick Twitter search for #DavidCarr will produce tributes, testimonials, obituaries and links to examples of his work. 
The dirty secret: journalism has always been horrible to get in; you always have to eat so much crap to find a place to stand. I waited tables for seven years, did writing on the side. If you’re gonna get a job that’s a little bit of a caper, that isn’t really a job, that under ideal circumstances you get to at least leave the building and leave your desktop, go out, find people more interesting than you, learn about something, come back and tell other people about it—that should be hard to get into. That should be hard to do. No wonder everybody’s lined up, trying to get into it. It beats working
- David Carr, 1956-2015 Paul Davidson
February 11, 2015 Paul Davidson, intrepid reporter turned gentleman of the subs' desk, has died on the train home after a shift at the Sun. He was 65. Davidson, left with longtime friend Dave Clarke, was military reporter for the Evening Gazette in the garrison town of Colchester in the 70s, when the IRA was in its pomp. Other members of the reporting team in those days included Clarke, who went on to become News of the World chief sub, Mail diarist Richard Kay, Telegraph man about town William Langley and a young woman now known as Gameoldgirl, who takes a trip down memory lane here
Kenji GotoFebruary 1, 2015 The freelance journalist Kenji Goto is reported to have been murdered by Isis, the second of two Japanese hostages to be killed in a week.
Isis, which issued a video purporting to show Goto being beheaded, had demanded a $200m ransom for Goto and adventurer Haruna Yukawa after the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe donated that amount in non-military aid for the international fight against Isis. Yukawa is believed to have been killed last week. Goto, 47, was the third captive journalist to have been killed by Isis "on camera". An Iraqi photographer, Adnan Abdul Razzaq. Goto was kidnapped shortly after arriving in Syria last October - and just a few weeks after his wife Rinko gave birth to a daughter. Mrs Goto said: "I remain extremely proud of my husband, who reported the plight of people in conflict areas like Iraq, Somalia and Syria. It was his job to highlight the effects on ordinary people, especially through the eyes of children, and to inform the rest of us of the tragedies of war." Editor's blog: Mother's pride, mother's pain Stéphane Charbonnier, Bernard Velhac,
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Abdihakin Mohamed Omar, a Somali Broadcasting Corporation producer, and Mohamed Abdikarim Moallim Adam, a Universal TV reporter for Universal TV, were killed in a suicide car bomb at the Jazeera Palace hotel in Mogadishu, which is used as a base by foreign diplomatic missions. The jihadist Al-Shabaab group said it carried out the attack, in which another Universal reporter was wounded. (26/07/15)
Bahsar Abdul Atheem and Faisal al-Habib have been tied to a tree and shot by Isis after being abducted in Raqqa, Syria. The two men, in their twenties, were accused of handing out anti-Sharia leaflets (08/07/15)
Isis is reported to have killed Suha Ahmed Radi, several days after arresting her for espionage and spreading false propaganda. Radi was a reporter for a paper in Mosul until Isis took control of the town and she had switched to contributing to news agencies (07/07/15)
Juan Mendoza Delgado, a former crime reporter who ran a website called Writing the Truth, has been found dead in Veracruz. No further details were available. Another Mexican journalist, Fidelfo Sanchez Sarmiento, was killed by two gunmen as he was leaving the studio after presenting his morning radio programme in the south of the country (01/07/15)
Daily newspaper reporter Dera Murad Jamal was murdered by gunmen who broek into his home in Jaffarabad, Pakistan, as he slept. He had reported being threatened, but it was not clear whether the killing was related to his work (29/06/15)
Sadeep Kotheri, who had reported on illegal mining in Madhya Pradesh, central India, was abducted and beaten to death. His body was set alight and left on a rail line. Police said he had been killed by a business rival.
His death came two weeks after that of Jagendra Singh, who was set on fire in Uttar Pradesh after writing an article about a local political leader. Before he died, Singh accused a minister and policemen. The police said he killed himself (22/06/15)
Online reporter Lucasz Masiak, 32, has been shot in the cloakrooms of a Polish bowling alley. He had received many threats, including being sent his own obituary last year (14/06/15)
The Brazilian radio journalist Djalma Santos da Conceição has been found murdered, having apparently been tortured, a day after he was kidnapped in the state of Bahia. Santos da Conceição presented a daily programme and was regarded as controversial. He is reported to have received death threats, including one on the day he was abducted (26/05/15)
The bodies of Yemeni television reporters Abdullah Qabil and Youssef al-Ayzari have been found in the rubble of a building hit by an air strike by a Saudi-led military coalition. The men were kidnapped on May 20 by militiamen allegedly affiliated with Houthi rebels, who controlled the target building (26/05/15)
Pow James Raeth, a radio journalist, and a friend were shot in the street in South Sudan. Police said they had been caught in crossfire (22/05/15)
Television producer Feras Yasin has been killed by Isis in Mosul, two months after being abducted. The group said he had been found guilty of apostasy (20/05/15)
The political blogger Evany José Metzker has been murdered in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, where he had been investigating a child prostitution ring. His half-naked decapitated body, with his hands tied behind his back, was found in a ditch.
His wife said: "He was doing investigative journalism in a region that is very dangerous. He investigated mayors, politicians, cargo robberies, prostitution." (20/05/15)
Radio journalist Armando Saldana Morales, has been shot dead near Veracruz, Mexico (11/05/15)
The TV journalist Raad al-Jabbouri has been shot at his home in Baghdad (11/05/15)
John Kituyi, the 63-year-old editor of Mirror Weekly in Eldoret, west Kenya, was repeatedly beaten with a blunt instrument by attackers on a motorcycle who ambushed him as he walked home. He died of his injuries in hospital (01/05/15)
Thaer al-Ali, editor-in-chief of the Iraqi Rai al-Nas newspaper has been murdered by Isis after being held prisoner for 20 days (27/04/15)
Muftah al-Qatrani, 33, was shot dead at the Benghazi offices of his privately owned TV production company. He had been reporting on fighting between Islamist militias and pro-government groups in the Libyan city (23/04/15)
Reporter Mohamed Shamsan and three fellow members of staff at the Yemen Today TV station were killed in an air strike about 100 yards from their offices in Sana'a. A Saudi-led military coalition started bombing last month to try to wrest control of key cities from Houthi militia (21/04/15)
The pro-Russia journalist Oles Buzina, has been shot dead by two masked men outside his home in Kiev. Buzina was a former editor of the independent news website Segodnya
(16/04/15)
Radio reporter Soleil Balanga has been killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He had taken to using a megaphone to broadcast the news after his radio transmitter broke down (16/04/15)
Former daily newspaper journalist Melinda Magsino was shot dead at close range while waiting at a bus stop in the Philippines. She had started a new career running a health centre and it was unclear whether her death was related to her journalism (16/04/15)
Abdel Karim al-Khewani, a former editor and prominent supporter of the Houthi rebels in Yemen, was shot as he left his home in Sana'a. In 2007, he was abducted and warned off writing anti-government editorials. The following year he received a special Amnesty International award for human rights journalism under threat (08/04/15)
The Paraguayan radio journalist Gerardo Servian has died after being shot nine times in the street by men on a motorcycle in Ponta Pora, Brazil (13/03/15)
Gangsters are suspected of killing three journalists within three days in Guatemala. Guido Villatoro, 20, a TV reporter and cameraman, was shot as he went into the office of the Servicable channel. Danilo Lopez and Fererico Salazar of the Prensa Libra paper, were shot in the park along with another journalist, who was injured. They were said to have been warned about writing anti-corruption articles. Servicable was said to have missed an extortion payment (13/03/15)
Photographer Serhly Nikolayev has died after being hit by artillery fire near Donetsk (03/03/15)
The Colombian radio presenter Edgar Quintero has died after being shot several times as he went into a bakery near his office in Palmira (03/03/15)
Ivanildo Viana of Brazil's 00.5 FM Lider radio station was shot dead on his motorbike by killers who chased him along the highway (02/03/15)
Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonna were attacked and stabbed by two men as they left a book fair at Dhaka University. Roy died in hospital, his wife was critically injured (27/02/15)
Philippines radio anchorman Maurito Lim, 71, has been shot by a lone gunman while on his way to work (17/02/15)
Luis Carlos Peralta Cuéllar, a Colombian radio journalist, has died after being shot in the head three times by two attackers who went to his home. He had just announced plans to stand as a mayoral candidate and had told a friend last week that he had been threatened (14/02/15)
Television journalist Ramon Fernandez has been shot dead getting out of his car outside his home in Honduras (11/02/15)
The Iraqi photographer Adnan Abdul Razzaq is reported to have been murdered by Isis in Mosul. On Friday another Iraqi journalist, Ali Ansari, was killed while covering fighting between Isis and the Iraqi army north of Baghdad. Two other people working for state television were wounded. (29/01/15)
Five state radio and television journalists were among eleven people who died wnen a convoy was ambushed in Bahr al Ghazal, South Sudan. They were Musa Mohamed Dahiya (Abu-Kalam), Radio Raja Director, the station's journalists Randa George, Adam Juma and Dalia Marko, together with cameraman Butrous Martin who worked for South Sudan TV. (29/01/15)
Aqeel Mohammed Waqar has been shot dead at a wedding in Afghanistan (27/01/15)
The chief editor of Fokus Lampung weekly Beni Faisal bin Zaenal Abidin has been shot dead in front of his home in Indonesia (27/01/15)
Nerlita Ledesma, 48, who worked for the Abante newspaper and a local radio station, has been shot dead while waiting for a lift to work near Manila (09/01/15)
Yemeni television reporter Khalid Mohammed al Washal has been killed by an al-Qaeda roadside bomb in Dhaner, south of Sana'a. Three policemen also died (08/01/15)
