Paris: According to a Wednesday report from a UN organisation, the vast majority of murders of journalists worldwide go unpunished.
The United Nations cultural organisation UNESCO, whose mandate includes media issues, stated that “Impunity for killings of journalists remains unacceptably high at 86 percent.”
“All essential steps” should be taken, according to UNESCO, “to ensure that crimes against journalists are duly investigated and their perpetrators are identified and sentenced.”
According to UNESCO, Most Journalist Killings Go Unpunished
In a report released in conjunction with the UN-supported International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, the organisation referred to the global immunity rate for journalist killings as “shockingly high.”
Freedom of expression cannot be safeguarded when there are so many unsolved cases, according to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.
She claimed that the existence of impunity “chilled investigative reporting.”
Even though UNESCO applauded a 9 percentage point decrease in impunity over the preceding ten years, it claimed that this was not enough to halt what it called “the spiral of violence.”
91 of the 117 journalists who were slain for doing their jobs in 2020 and 2021, the reporting year, were killed while not working.
It stated that “a number were murdered in front of family members, including their children.”
According to UNESCO, national media laws and policies are being developed and put into place in collaboration with member nations.
In order to “enforce the rights of journalists and ensure that attacks against them are investigated and prosecuted,” it was also providing training for judges, prosecutors, and security personnel.
