Getting Away With Murder
October 27, 2016 8:00 AM ET
CPJ’s 2016 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free By Elisabeth Witchel, CPJ Impunity Campaign Consultant Published October 27, 2016. Some of the highest rates of impunity in the murders of journalists can be attributed to killings by Islamist militant groups, CPJ...
Getting Away With Murder
October 8, 2015 12:01 PM ET
Iraq's move away from the top spot is based on a number of factors, few of them encouraging; only one conviction has been achieved in Iraq. The Impunity Index examines unsolved murders over the previous decade in which journalism is the confirmed motive. The first couple of years of...
International journalists killed at high rate in 2014; Middle East deadliest region
December 23, 2014 12:01 AM ET
Syria is the world’s deadliest country for journalists for the third year in a row. International journalists were killed at a higher rate in 2014 than in recent years. A CPJ special report by Shazdeh Omari...
The Road to Justice
October 28, 2014 12:01 AM ET
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...
The Road to Justice
October 28, 2014 12:00 AM ET
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...
The Road to Justice
October 28, 2014 12:00 AM ET
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...
The Road to Justice
October 28, 2014 12:00 AM ET
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...
The Road to Justice
October 28, 2014 12:00 AM ET
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...
The Road to Justice
October 28, 2014 12:00 AM ET
4. Steps That Work and Those That Don’t On May 3, 2011, CPJ representatives traveled to Pakistan to raise concerns about the increasing attacks against journalists there and the country’s high rate of impunity. It was a moment of drama: The previous day, American forces had killed Osama bin Laden...
The Road to Justice
October 28, 2014 12:00 AM ET
5. Building Pressure, Enforcing Compliance The United Nations has escalated its focus on journalist killings, declaring that unpunished attacks against journalists are a major threat not only to press freedom, but also to all major areas of the U.N.’s work. In recent years, it has adopted two resolutions addressing journalists’...