A total 57 journalists were killed worldwide in 2019 - the annual lowest death-toll in a decade - but while the number who died in countries gripped by armed conflict fell sharply, those killed elsewhere reached the highest level in recent years, the United Nations said on Monday.
“Although the number of journalists killed around the world has declined, far too many are still paying the ultimate price for their reporting. We remain deeply concerned about the increasing risks faced by media workers outside of conflict settings, and persisting impunity for these attacks,” said UN culture organisation UNESCO's Director-General Audrey Azoulay.
“To preserve the fundamental right to freedom of expression and ensure public access to reliable information, reporters must be able to carry out their work in free and safe conditions while those who perpetrate crimes against them must systematically be brought to justice,” Azoulay added.
In 2018-2019, there were a total 156 killings of journalists recorded globally, a 14% decline compared with the previous two-year period. worldwide, according to figures released by the UN culture organisation
The new statistics show that the level of impunity for crimes against journalists is still extremely high with almost nine in ten cases remaining unpunished, UNESCO said in a statementl
The UNESCO report came on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, the statement said.
Countries free of armed conflict registered the highest number of journalist killings in several years and now account for the highest number of journalists' deaths, the report said. Worryingly, most journalists are now killed in these countries for covering corruption, human rights violations, environmental crimes, trafficking, and political wrongdoing, said the statement.
Journalism remains a dangerous profession whose practitioners face many types of threats, violence and harassment, according to the report. Female journalists are particularly targeted by offline and online gender-based attacks that range from harassment, trolling and doxxing to physical and sexual assault.
While one journalist was killed somewhere in the world every four days over the past decade, most of these crimes go unpunished with just 13% of perpetrators jailed as of 2020, only a slight improvement from 12% in 2019 and 11% in 2018.
The highest number of fatal attacks in 2018-2019 occurred in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region, representing 31% of the total journalists’ killings registered worldwide, followed by the Asia Pacific Region with 30% of killings, the report noted.
UNESCO and its partners are organizing awareness-raising events in more than 18 countries around the world to mark International Day to End Impunity and is launching a global campaign on social media, the statement concluded.
