“I am not interested in why man commits evil; I want to know why he does good.”
— Vaclav Havel

What makes a poor, small-town journalist stay on a story even though threatened with certain death, and offered handsome rewards for looking the other way?

Over four years, Terry Gould has travelled to Colombia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Russia and Iraq – the countries in which journalists are most likely to be murdered on the job – to attempt to answer this question. In each place, through conversations with their colleagues, their families and in some cases their murderers, he uncovers the lives of local reporters and broadcasters who stayed on a story to the point of death. He searches for the moment in which each of his protagonists understood that they were willing to die, and finds complex reasons for their bravery. In his wonderfully vivid portraits of seven courageous souls, he brings their lives and the stories they worked on to light, telling truth to those who would murder truth tellers.

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FINALIST 2009 - Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing
WINNER 2009 - Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction

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"[Murder Without Borders] by Terry Gould is a book of love and passion. The portraits of slain journalists who reported from the world’s most dangerous places are unquestionably tragic, but this book is uplifting and even inspiring. Through his meticulous reporting and his compassionate storytelling, Gould performs a small miracle, a literary resurrection, allowing journalists so cruelly killed to tell their own stories completely and honestly. In an age when journalism is threatened by economic collapse and deep public cynicism, Gould’s book reminds us that journalism can be beautiful and meaningful and that its power to combat injustice so great that some journalists around the world are willing to give their lives to tell the truth."
— Joel Simon, Executive Director, Committee to Protect Journalists

"In an investigative tour de force, Gould brings a level of detail and realism to his descriptions of people and places that makes the book's 400 pages melt away."
— The Concordian

"Terry Gould has done an enormous service to journalists everywhere with this macabre collection of murders most foul."
— The Vancouver Sun

"Gould's admirable book confronts us with examples of rare, beleaguered, fragile goodness — goodness so dangerous to those in power that it had to be stamped out."
— Quill & Quire

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Visit Terry Gould's website.

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Introduction: The Psychology of Sacrifice

One
Small Town, Big Hell: Guillermo Bravo Vega, Colombia

Two
I Grew Up on Bullets: Marlene Garcia-Esperat, Philippines

Three
Jewel Moon and the Human Universe: Manik Chandra Saha, Bangladesh

Four
Anna Had No Roof: Anna Politkovskaya, Russia

Five
The Boys from Car City: Valery Ivanov and Alexei Sidorov, Russia

Six
Solid Khalid: Khalid W. Hassan, Iraq

Conclusion: Journalism as an Act of Courage

Source Notes
Acknowledgments
Photo Credits

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Terry Gould is a Brooklyn-born investigative journalist who focuses on organized crime and social issues. He has won 47 awards and other honours for his reporting. His previous books are Paper Fan: The Hunt for Triad Gangster Steven Wong and The Lifestyle, both published by Random House Canada. He lives in Vancouver.

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