Two journalists shot dead during Facebook Live broadcast

February 16, 2017

Santo Domingo, Feb 16: Two radio journalists have been killed in the Dominican Republic after gunmen opened fire during a news bulletin which was being broadcast on Facebook Live.

Luís Manuel Medina, the presenter of the news programme Milenio Caliente – or Hot Millennium – was killed while on air on Tuesday morning. Producer and director Leo Martínez was shot dead in an adjacent office at the radio station FM 103.5.

Gunfire could be heard during the Facebook Live video, along with a woman yelling “Shots! Shots! Shots!” before the transmission abruptly cuts off.

The station secretary Dayaba Garcia was also injured in the attack and taken to hospital where she needed emergency surgery.

Police said the shooting occurred in San Pedro de Macorís, a small city 45 miles east of the capital, Santo Domingo. The radio station is located within a shopping mall.

Three men have been arrested, but none has been charged. Police say they do not yet have a motive.

Medina was also the official announcer of the Estrellas Orientales baseball team.

Milenio Caliente is a popular local radio programme recognised for its lively political analysis and social campaigns.

In recent weeks, Medina had repeatedly condemned pollution in Laguna Mallen, a protected lake in San Pedro.

Olivo de Leon, from the College of Journalism who knew both men, said the attack was unprecedented in the country's history. “For gunmen to open fire in a media outlet like this is unprecedented.

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“The authorities must investigate to determine not just the killers but also the intellectual authors so that we know why they were murdered. Impunity in this case will generate fear among journalists, making them scared to speak out and do their jobs. The government must guarantee freedom of expression,” De Leon told the Guardian in a telephone interview from Santo Domingo.

While murders are rare, harassment and intimidation of journalists reporting on organised crime and corruption is fairly common in the Dominican Republic.

In recent years, reporters who spoke out against a controversial 2013 court ruling which stripped Dominicans of Haitian descent of their citizenship have received death threats and suffered vicious online harassment campaigns.

The last journalist to be killed in the country was Blas Olivo who was shot dead in April 2015. Police said Olvio, press director of the Dominican Agribusiness Association, was the victim of a bungled robbery, even though neither his car nor phone were stolen. The case remains ongoing.

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Pak jail authorities say Imran Khan is alive and healthy after ‘murder’ rumours spark panic

News Network

November 27,2025

Authorities at Pakistan’s high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on Wednesday dismissed speculation about the condition of imprisoned former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, rejecting rumours that he had been moved out of the facility or was in danger. Officials said Khan was in “good health” and described the viral death claims as “baseless.”

“There is no truth to reports about his transfer from Adiala Jail,” the Rawalpindi prison administration said in a statement, according to Geo News. “He is fully healthy and receiving complete medical attention.”

Amid swirling rumours on social media, Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), urged the federal government to issue an official clarification and demanded that authorities allow his family to meet him immediately, Dawn reported.

The frenzy began after Khan’s three sisters called for an impartial probe into what they described as a “brutal” police assault on them and other PTI supporters outside Adiala Jail last week. Soon after, several social media handles circulated unverified claims alleging that Khan had been “killed” inside the prison.

The rumours intensified when a handle named “Afghanistan Times” claimed that “credible sources” had confirmed Khan’s “murder” and that his body had been moved out of the jail — allegations that have not been verified by any credible agency.

Imran Khan, PTI’s patron-in-chief, has been lodged in the Rawalpindi prison since August 2023 in multiple cases. For over a month, an undeclared restriction has prevented family members and senior PTI leaders from meeting him. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has reportedly been denied access despite making seven attempts.

In a letter to Punjab Police Chief Usman Anwar, Khan’s sisters — Noreen Niazi, Aleema Khan, and Dr. Uzma Khan — said they were “peacefully protesting” outside the jail when police allegedly launched an unprovoked assault after streetlights were switched off.

“At 71, I was seized by my hair, thrown to the ground and dragged across the road,” Noreen Niazi said, alleging that other women present were also slapped and manhandled.

Adiala Jail officials reiterated that speculation over Imran Khan’s health was unfounded and insisted that his well-being was being ensured, Geo News reported.

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