Maguindanao

By Sumit Galhotra/CPJ Asia Program Research Associate

November 23 will mark five years since the Maguindanao massacre, the single deadliest event for the press since the Committee to Protect Journalists began keeping records in 1992.

CPJ’s 2014 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free

Eliminating witnesses has become an all too easy and eff ective method of stymying justice when journalists are assassinated. By Elisabeth Witchel

New York, December 2, 2013--Philippine authorities must identify the perpetrators behind the fatal shooting of radio journalist Joas Dignos on Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Dignos was a local radio commentator, according to news reports.

By Maha Masud/CPJ Speak Justice Associate

In December 2012, the Committee to Protect Journalists and 27 partner organizations launched Speak Justice: Voices against Impunity as part of an international effort to seek justice for the hundreds of journalists who have been murdered around the world. Today, on International Day to End Impunity, we are taking a look back at what has happened over the last 12 months.

By Frank Smyth/CPJ Senior Adviser for Journalist Security

Two murdered journalists for the Africa service of Radio France Internationale, Ghislaine Dupont, 51, and Claude Verlon, 58, might have had a chance. They were abducted on November 2 in Kidal in northern Mali, but the vehicle their captors were driving suddenly broke down, according to news reports.

CPJ’s 2013 Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free

By María Salazar-Ferro/Coordinator, Impunity Campaign & Journalist Assistance Program

Three years ago, on November 23, 2009, 30 journalists and two media workers were brutally killed in the southern Philippine city of Maguindanao while travelling in a convoy with the family and supporters of a local politician. To this day, not a single suspect has been convicted, though local authorities have identified close to 200. The botched trial has been stalled with procedural hurdles. Victims' families have been threatened and key witnesses have been slain.

By María Salazar-Ferro/Coordinator, Impunity Campaign and Journalist Assistance Program

Approximately 30 journalists are targeted and murdered every year, and on average, in only three of these crimes are the killers ever brought to justice. Other attacks on freedom of expression occur daily: bloggers are threatened, photographers beaten, writers kidnapped. And in those instances, justice is even more rare. Today, the Committee to Protect Journalists joins freedom of expression advocates worldwide in a 23-day campaign to dismantle one case at a time a culture of impunity that allows perpetrators to gag journalists, bloggers, photographers and writers, while keeping the rest of us uninformed.