Ending impunity for crimes against journalists is one of the most important and complex challenges of recent times, states the United Nation. Considering this complexity, the International Day of to end impunity for crimes against journalists is observed annually on November 2.
According to the UN, it is an essential precondition to guarantee freedom of expression and access to information for all citizens. The 2023 observance seeks to raise awareness of the main challenges faced by journalists and communicators in the exercise of their profession, and to warn of the escalation of violence and repression against them. These include attacks and restrictions on the press in the context of coverage of social protests; the use of judicial mechanisms against journalists for reasons related to their journalistic work on matters of public interest; and the increase of forced exile of journalists in some countries. Between 2006 and 2020, over 1,200 journalists have been killed around the world, with close to 9 out of 10 cases of these killings remaining judicially unresolved, according to the UNESCO observatory of killed journalists
A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) 2023 Impunity Index (a tally of countries where journalists are murdered and perpetrators elude justice) indicates that no one has been brought to justice in nearly 80 percent of the 261 cases of journalists murdered in retaliation for their work in the past decade. Moreover, full justice has been achieved in fewer than 5 percent of cases since 1992.
“As journalist murders continue to go unpunished in nearly 80% of cases globally, in both democracies and authoritarian countries, the message is clear: journalists are fair game,” said CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg. “Murder is the ultimate form of censorship. Swift, transparent, independent local investigations are critical, and political will can change the course of justice to stem the pervasive impunity in cases of journalists killed for their work.”
For the first time, the CPJ index includes Haiti, listed at third place amid the country’s mounting security crisis, which has been aggravated by pervasive gang violence and political instability under a caretaker government, and further exacerbated by a series of natural disasters. In such a perilous environment, reports the CPJ, journalists are forced to work in a climate of almost total lawlessness, afraid of being targeted for their reporting and often terrified into self-censorship.
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This year’s CPJ index records Syria in number one as the country with the worst impunity record globally. “Somalia, reaching its 16th year on the index, is the world’s second-worst offender. All of the top three countries on the index are unstable and plagued with violence. Nonetheless, impunity is also continuously present in functional democracies such as Brazil, Mexico, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines,” states the CPJ.
The 2023 UN theme ‘Violence against journalists, the integrity of elections, and the role of public leadership’, seeks to give visibility to the role of a safe and free press in ensuring the integrity of elections and our democratic systems. According to the UN, it reaffirms the obligation of States to adopt effective measures to protect the independent press and strengthen institutional frameworks that combat violence and impunity, and promote media independence, sustainability and diversity.
The main commemoration of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists will take place on November 2-3 at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington D.C. and will focus on the violence against journalists, the integrity of elections, and the role of public leadership.
