Tamer Abuarab’s article today under the title “A message from a scared person” offers strong insight into why we at CPJ decided to produce our upcoming documentary film, “Under Threat,” and make an appeal for journalists to speak out with the hashtag #EgyptLastWord.
New York, October 29, 2014–Iranian authorities have detained for almost a week a journalist affiliated with the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), a media outlet that has covered a series of acid attacks on women in the country, according to news reports. Four other staff members affiliated with the agency were arrested on Monday…
New York, October 28, 2014–The National Intelligence and Security Services in Sudan arrested a journalist on Thursday in Khartoum and has held him without charge since, according to news reports. Al-Nour Ahmed al-Nour is the Sudan correspondent for the pan-Arab London-based newspaper Al-Hayat and also works as a columnist for the Sudanese independent daily Al-Taghyeer.
Breaking the Cycle of Impunity in the Killing of Journalists The lack of justice in hundreds of murders of journalists around the world is one of the greatest threats to press freedom today. While international attention to the issue has grown over the past decade, there has been little progress in bringing down rates of…
Ninety percent of murderers walk free, threatening press freedom, CPJ report finds New York, October 28, 2014–Despite increased international attention to the murder of journalists, governments have failed to take meaningful action to reduce the high rates of targeted violence and impunity, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in a new report released today.
About This Report Elisabeth Witchel, the founder of CPJ’s Global Campaign Against Impunity, is the lead author of this report. Witchel launched the campaign in 2007 and has compiled five editions of the organization’s annual Global Impunity Index as well as several other major reports. She has worked in human rights and journalism for more…
1. What Does Impunity Mean? In 1981, the year CPJ was founded, Argentina was enmeshed in the so-called Dirty War, in which dozens of journalists were disappeared. Most were never seen again. To this day, no one has systematically documented the media murders that took place, and no one knows precisely how many journalists perished.…
2. Measuring Progress Against Stubborn Reality In November 2013, the United Nations General Assembly put the issue of impunity squarely on the global agenda. The Resolution on Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, adopted by consensus, describes the absence of justice for victims as “one of the main challenges to strengthening the protection…
3. Where Impunity Thrives A climate of impunity reached a tragic culmination on November 23, 2009, when gunmen ambushed a caravan escorting political candidate Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu as he prepared to file papers to become a candidate for provincial governor in the Philippines. The attackers slaughtered 58 people, among them 30 journalists and two media…