‘We have a job to do’

Texas journalists continue to seek answers on the Uvalde school shooting — and to grieve

When a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022, journalists rushed to the scene to cover the mass shooting. In the year that followed, local and state journalists continued to follow families in their grief.

Covering the mass shooting was deeply personal, local journalists told CPJ on a recent trip to Uvalde. They have played a pivotal role in helping families seek answers from police about their slow response to the shooting, and have faced obstruction and threats of arrest from local authorities.

“One of the chief frustrations that the Uvalde victims’ families have expressed to us is that their access to information is so limited,” says Texas Tribune reporter Zach Despart. “So they are learning things about the shooting from reporters because they’re not getting them from official sources.”

Deadly Pattern
A mural of Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is seen on a wall in Gaza City on May 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

The May 11, 2022, killing of Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh is part of a deadly, decades-long pattern, according to a new special report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Over 22 years, CPJ has documented at least 20 journalist killings by members of the Israel Defense Forces. Despite numerous IDF probes, no one has ever been charged or held responsible for these deaths. The impunity in these cases has severely undermined the freedom of the press, leaving the rights of journalists in precarity and undermining coverage of the region.  The report includes recommendations to prevent future killings.

MORE FROM CPJ
CPJ will honor Alberto Ibargüen, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with the 2023 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.


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Journalists Attacked

Arman Soldin

KILLED


Arman Soldin, a Bosnian French video journalist with the French news agency Agence France-Presse, was killed in a rocket attack on May 9, 2023, near the Ukrainian city of Chasiv Yar.

Soldin, 32, was one of the first AFP correspondents to enter Ukraine after the Russian invasion and was working alongside four AFP journalists and a group of Ukrainian soldiers. The four journalists were uninjured.

The French anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office and the Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office have opened separate investigations into Soldin’s killing.

When a journalist is killed covering conflict or on another dangerous assignment, the perpetrators must be held accountable.

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 killed in 2023 (motive confirmed)
imprisoned in 2022
missing globally