Impunity for the killers of journalists continues unabated at nearly 80% worldwide
New York, October 30, 2024 — Two small nations with outsized levels of impunity—Haiti and Israel—are the world’s top offenders in allowing the murderers of journalists to go unpunished. Globally, impunity remains entrenched, as no one is held to account in almost 80% of the cases where journalists have been directly targeted in retaliation for their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2024 Global Impunity Index.
Haiti, which first appeared on the index in 2023, is challenged by criminal gangs that are overtaking the country and destabilizing already weak institutions, including the judiciary. Its rise to the top of CPJ’s index—which was launched in 2008—follows the unsolved murders of seven journalists within the 10-year period index period for 2024. Israel, ranked second, has landed on the index for the first time following a failure to hold anyone to account in the targeted killing of five journalists in Gaza and Lebanon in a year of relentless war. All of the murdered journalists were reporting on the war and three of the five were wearing press vests at the time they were killed. CPJ is investigating the possible targeted murders of at least 10 additional journalists. Given the challenges of documenting the war, the number may be far higher. Overall, Israel has killed a record number of Palestinian journalists since the war began on October 7, 2023. Deliberately targeting journalists, who are civilians in any conflict, is a war crime.
“Murder is the ultimate weapon to silence journalists,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “Once impunity takes hold, it sends a clear message: that killing a journalist is acceptable and that those who continue reporting may face a similar fate.”
Somalia (third), Syria (fourth), and South Sudan (fifth), round out the top five worst offenders of 2024. All three countries have appeared on CPJ’s index for at least a decade. In total, 13 nations are on the index, including democracies and authoritarian regimes, most of them suffering from one or more of the corrosive factors that allow journalists’ killers to evade justice: wars, insurgencies, criminal gangs and local authorities that are unwilling or unable to act and deliver justice.
CPJ 2024 Global Impunity Index rankings
| Index rank | Country | Unsolved murders | Population (in millions)* | Years on index |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Haiti | 7 | 11.7 | 2 |
| 2 | Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territory* | 8 | 14.9 | 1 |
| 3 | Somalia | 9 | 18.1 | 17 |
| 4 | Syria | 11 | 23.2 | 11 |
| 5 | South Sudan | 5 | 11.1 | 10 |
| 6 | Afghanistan | 18 | 42.2 | 16 |
| 7 | Iraq | 11 | 45.5 | 17 |
| 8 | Mexico | 21 | 128.5 | 17 |
| 9 | Philippines | 18 | 117.3 | 17 |
| 10 | Myanmar | 8 | 54.6 | 3 |
| 11 | Brazil | 10 | 216.4 | 15 |
| 12 | Pakistan | 8 | 240.5 | 17 |
| 13 | India | 19 | 1428.6 | 17 |
*The total for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory includes the murder of Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed in Lebanon by Israeli forces firing from inside Israel.
Over the 10-year period covered in the index, CPJ identified 241 killings where there was clear evidence the murders were directly linked to a person’s work. Less than 4% of those murdered achieved full justice; 19% obtained partial justice, meaning some of their killers were held to account; and the remaining 77% received no justice.
Mexico recorded the highest overall number of unpunished murders of journalists – 21 – during the index period and ranks eighth on the index because of its sizable population. Long one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media, Mexico reported a rise in deadly violence in 2024 after dropping from record levels in 2022. More than a decade since the establishment of a Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, the program is plagued by fundamental flaws and requires reform in order to provide the protection for which it was designed.
“Impunity in the murder of journalists does not exist in a vacuum, as the index shows. These countries represent places where acute violence against the press is normalized, with journalists perpetually under threat, working under impossible conditions that remain unabated for years,” said Ginsberg. “The lack of accountability creates news deserts that stifle the voices of local people, making it easy for officials to ignore them, and creating fertile ground for corruption and wrongdoing to flourish.”
Asia is the most represented region in the index with Afghanistan (ranked sixth), the Philippines (ninth), Myanmar (10th) and Pakistan (12th), with the Philippines and Pakistan appearing annually since 2008.
Iraq, which has appeared on the index every year since its inception, ended its six-year hiatus in work-related murders following the targeted killing of two women journalists in 2024. Islamic State (IS) militants and Turkish anti-Kurdish forces were behind most of the 11 murders in Iraq during the 2024 index period.
Despite international frameworks intended to tackle impunity, the lack of meaningful improvement in accountability for journalist killings in the past decades indicates more needs to be done to hold perpetrators to account. Together with other organizations, CPJ is advocating for the establishment of an international investigative task force focused on crimes against journalists. A blueprint for a body, initially proposed in 2020 by a panel of legal experts, could deploy resources or advise in situations where local law enforcement may be lacking either capacity or political will to investigate crimes against journalists.
###
Note to Editors:
CPJ’s Global Impunity Index calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population. For the 2024 index, CPJ examined journalist murders that occurred between September 1, 2014, and August 31, 2024, and remain unsolved. Only those nations with five or more unsolved cases are included on the index. CPJ defines murder as the targeted killing of a journalist, whether premeditated or spontaneous, in direct connection to the journalist’s work. The index only tallies murders that have been carried out with complete impunity. It does not include those for which partial justice has been achieved. Population data from the World Bank’s 2023 World Development Indicators, viewed in October 2024, were used in calculating each country’s rating. Regions within a nation that are partially controlled or occupied by that nation, such as the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and Gaza and Israel, are included in that country’s population figures. The total for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory includes the murder of Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed in Lebanon by Israeli forces firing from inside Israel. See full methodology here.
Read CPJ’s 2023, 2022, and 2021 impunity index reports.
About the Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.