CPJ Board: Free press must be protected

Former President Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Photo: AP/Evan Vucci)
U.S. presidential election winner Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center on November 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Photo: AP/Evan Vucci)

On November 6, after former President Donald Trump was declared the winner of the U.S. presidential election, the Committee to Protect Journalists urged the new administration “to recognize the free press and the factual information that journalists provide as an essential component of democracy, stability, and public safety.”

CPJ’s board of directors stated that it “stands firmly in defense of a robust press” that can hold power to account.

“The fundamental right to a free press, guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, must not be impaired,” the board statement said. “Legal persecution, imprisonment, physical violence, and even killings have sadly become familiar threats for journalists across the world. They must not now also become commonplace in the United States, where threats of violence and online harassment have in recent years become routine.”

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Haiti, Israel rank worst in CPJ 2024 Global Impunity Index
A journalist's driver injured by tear gas is evacuated near the national palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 17, 2024. The Caribbean nation became the likeliest nation to let journalists' murderers go free in CPJ's 2024 Global Impunity Index. (Photo: AFP/Clarens Siffroy)
A journalist’s driver is evacuated near the national palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 17, 2024. (Photo: AFP/Clarens Siffroy)

Two small nations – Haiti and Israel – are now the world’s biggest offenders in letting journalists’ murderers go unpunished, according to CPJ’s 2024 Global Impunity Index, which measures unsolved murders in proportion to a country’s population. This year is the first time Israel has appeared in CPJ’s index since its inception in 2008.

In Haiti, ranked No. 1, a weak-to-nonexistent judiciary, gang violence, poverty, and political instability have contributed to the failure to hold killers to account. Israel’s targeted killing of journalists in Gaza and Lebanon during a relentless war drove it up to the No. 2 spot on the index, which covers the period from September 1, 2014, to August 31, 2024.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists promotes press freedom worldwide.

We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

In at least 8 out of 10 cases, the murderers of journalists go free. CPJ is waging a global campaign against impunity.

journalists killed in 2024 (motive confirmed)
imprisoned in 2023
missing globally