The Torch is a weekly newsletter from the Committee to Protect Journalists that brings you the latest press freedom and journalist safety news from around the world. Subscribe here.
Today, as we mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, the rate of impunity for killers of journalists continues unabated at nearly 80% worldwide, according to CPJ’s 2023 Global Impunity Index.
For the first time, Haiti is on the index, ranking as the world’s third-worst impunity offender, behind Syria and Somalia respectively. Syria, which has been on CPJ’s index for a decade, reached number one as the country with the worst impunity record globally. Somalia, which has been on the index for 16 years, is the world’s second-worst offender. The top three countries on the index are unstable and plagued with violence. Nonetheless, impunity is also continuously present in functional democracies such as Brazil, Mexico, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
“As journalist murders continue to go unpunished in nearly 80% of cases globally, in both democracies and authoritarian countries, the message is clear: journalists are fair game,” said CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg.
“Murder is the ultimate form of censorship. Swift, transparent, independent local investigations are critical, and political will can change the course of justice to stem the pervasive impunity in cases of journalists killed for their work.”
The index is available in five languages: English, Arabic, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Russian.
🚨 Learn more about impunity in Haiti in our special feature and in the accompanying video interview with The Haitian Times founder Garry Pierre-Pierre.
⚡️ Dive deeper into a story of three Russian journalists killed with impunity in Central African Republic by CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Gulnoza Said.
📝 Read CPJ’s former executive director Robert Mahoney on how Biden’s Saudi policy stymies the quest for justice in Jamal Khashoggi’s case
🔎 Follow CPJ’s timeline on the 35-year road to justice for murdered journalist Hugo Bustíos Saavedra.
📷 Explore the stories of journalists killed with impunity across the world.
🗯 Raise your voice on social media for journalists murdered with impunity.
Global press freedom updates
- CPJ, partners call for journalists’ protection in Vietnam ahead of country’s human rights review
- In Ecuador, threats force nine journalists to flee their homes in seven months
- Guinean journalists arrested, attacked at protest over blocking of news website
- DRC journalist Blaise Mabala accused of insulting a provincial government official
- At least 27 Bangladeshi journalists attacked, harassed while covering political rallies
- Syrian journalist missing after arrest on Iraqi Kurdistan border
- Alabama publisher, reporter arrested, charged with disclosing leaked information
- Georgian parliament reinstates controversial powers to sanction broadcast media
Spotlight
The Israel-Gaza war has become the deadliest period for journalists covering conflict since CPJ began documenting journalist fatalities in 1992. From October 7 to November 2, at least 35 journalists and media workers have been killed. This deadly toll is coupled with harassment, arrests, and other reporting obstructions.
📷 Explore CPJ’s photo gallery of the unprecedented toll the Israel-Gaza war is taking on journalists — images of journalists working under extreme, heartbreaking, and fatal circumstances to cover the war.
For more war coverage:
💥 Journalist casualties in the war
⛔️ Egypt bans Mada Masr website for 6 months over report on Israel-Gaza war
💡 CPJ’s journalist safety advice for covering conflict and civil unrest—available in English and Arabic
📢 CPJ joins call for immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Israel-Gaza war
⚠️ CPJ’s October 27 statement on news blackout in Gaza
What we are reading
- The insidious spread of ‘foreign agent’ laws — Jon Allsop, Columbia Journalism Review
- Reporters in Gaza turn to radios and generators to keep the news moving — Tom Bennett, WIRED
- Before Trump, before Agnew, hate mail reveals long-simmering hostility to journalists— Kathryn J. McGarr, Scientific American
- WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich marks 32nd birthday in Russian prison — Joseph De Avila, The Wall Street Journal
- India is devouring its best and brightest — Vidya Krishnan, The New York Times
- Reporting from exile — The Dial
Do you have an Amazon Alexa-enabled device? Enable CPJ's flash briefing skill to stay up to date with the latest press freedom news from around the world.