#EndImpunity: Vast majority of journalists’ murderers go free

Family members grieve for murdered Filipino journalist Percival Mabasa in Las Pinas, suburban Manila, on October 4, 2022. (AFP/Jam Sta Rosa)

No one has been held to account for nearly 80% of journalist murders during the last 10 years, CPJ’s 2022 Global Impunity Index found, and governments show little interest in tackling the issue. Somalia remains the worst offender on the index for the eighth straight year. Syria, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, respectively, round out the top five countries on the index, which covers the period from September 1, 2012, to August 31, 2022, and Myanmar makes its first appearance.

CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg called for “thorough, independent investigations to stem violence against journalists — and political and economic consequences for those who fail to carry out such investigations.”

Read the full report here. It is also available in Afsoomaali, Français, 中文 (简体), हिन्दी, Español, Portuguȇs, Русский, العربية, and Türkçe. Watch CPJ’s video, read the index’s methodology, and explore CPJ’s database of journalists killed since 1992.

CPJ Advocacy and Communications Director Gypsy Guillén Kaiser spoke at the International Press Institute’s solidarity demonstration in Vienna, Austria. She reflected on the lack of forward movement in the U.N. Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity on its 10th anniversary and reminded those present that “press freedom is your freedom.”

Separately, CPJ joined more than 60 civil society organizations Thursday calling on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release Egyptian-British blogger and activist Alaa Abdelfattah after he announced that he would escalate his hunger strike in prison.

Abdelfattah, imprisoned since 2019, began a hunger strike in April, which resulted in the severe deterioration of his health. On Tuesday, Abdelfattah announced that he would go on a full hunger strike and stop drinking water on November 6, coinciding with the beginning of the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Read the full letter here, and watch CPJ’s video from earlier in 2022, in which Abdelfattah’s sister, Sanaa Seif, spoke with CPJ in New York about her brother’s imprisonment and Abdelfattah’s book “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated.”

Global press freedom updates

Spotlight

On November 2, 2022, the annual Carlos Cardoso Memorial Lecture was part of the African Investigative Journalism Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. From left: Baba Hydara, co-publisher of The Point Newspaper; Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator; and Penny Sukhraj-Hammerl, online editor of Dow Jones. (Selena Fourie).

CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal moderated the African Investigative Journalism Conference’s annual Carlos Cardoso Memorial Lecture in Johannesburg on November 2. The lecture was co-hosted by CPJ and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Wits Centre for Journalism, and the Campaign for Free Expression.

Over 350 investigative journalists from across the continent attended the event, including some whom CPJ has previously assisted, and the lecture’s keynote speakers were Baba Hydara, the son of assassinated Gambian editor Deyda Hydara, and Penny Sukhraj, the widow of photographer Anton Hammerl, who was killed in Libya.

In her closing remarks, Quintal said, “Africa’s media have come to know impunity as the norm, not the exception.” The conference adopted a declaration on impunity after the lecture. Watch the lecture here or read the Wits Centre for Journalism’s event summary.

The press accreditation for CPJ’s International Press Freedom Awards 2022 on November 17 is now open. Email press@cpj.org to apply for a press credential to cover the event or arrange interviews with CPJ experts and select awardees. Find more information about covering this year’s awards by visiting CPJ’s website. The event will be livestreamed on Facebook and Twitter.

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