View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
June 23, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 7:56pm

Rory Peck award journalist Adler shot dead in Somalia

By Press Gazette

Rory Peck award-winning Anglo-Swedish journalist Martin Adler has been shot dead while covering a demonstration in the Somalian capital Mogadishu.

Adler, who often worked for Channel 4 News, was covering a demonstration organised by Islamists – who took over the city from warlords in June 5. Western journalists have only considered the city safe enough to visit since the Islamist take-over.

According to Channel 4, Adler was a "longtime friend" of the network and staff were said to be "deeply saddened" to hear of his death.

He won the 2004 Rory Peck Award for hard news for his documentary On Patrol with Charlie Company.

It was described by one of the judges as "the best embedded piece I have seen from Iraq. He shot it, voiced it, edited it: it genuinely was his creation. It spoke volumes about the situation in Iraq."

Adler was born in Stockholm of Anglo-Swedish parents, he worked in over a dozen war zones including: El Salvador, Peru, Rwanda, Congo, Angola, Sierra leone, Liberia, Chechnya, Abchazia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Burundi, Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and Iraq.

In 2001, he won the Amnesty International Media Award for astory story on the kidnapping and sale of women in China. He lived in Sweden with his wife and two daughters.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

This Reuters aerial picture accompanying this story apparently shows another journalist going to Adler's aid.

In February 2005, BBC journalist Kate Peyton was shot dead in Mogadishu.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network