The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI) is a UN-recognised international day which is commemorated on 2 November annually. Established through the adoption of UN General Assembly Resolution 68/163 in 2013, it draws attention to the widespread problem of impunity - or lack of judicial resolution - for crimes committed against journalists.
UNESCO notes that between 2006 and 2024, over 1,700 journalists have been killed around the world ‘with close to 9 out of 10 cases of these killings remaining judicially unresolved.’ Journalists also find themselves subject to physical and non-physical attacks (such as online harassment and legal harassment) and in many cases, the perpetrators of such attacks are not held to account.
Particularly at risk of attacks with impunity are journalists covering critical public interest issues including corruption, organised crime, human rights violations and environmental conflicts. This lack of accountability has been shown to engender a climate of fear and self-censorship amongst journalists, sometimes as the only means of self-protection when states fail to deter or are directly complicit in attacks.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), impunity for journalist murders is a global problem. Certain factors, including “wars, insurgencies, authoritarian governments, criminal gangs, and a lack of political and judicial action” are all “corrosive factors that allow journalists’ killers to evade justice”. Haiti, Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territory, Somalia, Syria, South Sudan and Afghanistan currently rank amongst the countries with the highest impunity-rates for journalist murders. Impunity is however entrenched also in democratic contexts with countries such as Mexico and Brazil and India consistently reflecting a poor track record.
The role of the Centre for Freedom of the Media, University of Sheffield
While journalism safety is widely recognised as a prerequisite for sustainable and human rights-centred development the pervasive problem of impunity continues to undermine the safe practice of journalism.
Researchers at the Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM), based in the School of Journalism, Media and Communication at the University of Sheffield, have been working with a number of partners across the world to better understand the threats that journalists are facing and how impunity for such threats can be combated.
In November 2022, CFOM delivered action-oriented Recommendations to the UNESCO-led review of the UN Plan of Action on Journalism Safety and the Issue of Impunity. CFOM has also been involved in hosting a number of events on IDEI and World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) to raise awareness of the important role that journalists play in society and how we can ensure they are better protected.
CFOM and Monitoring rights-violations against journalists
An important step in developing measures to effectively counter impunity is the systematic documentation of the nature of attacks against journalists and the complexity of their underlying causes. Since 2018, CFOM has been working with Free Press Unlimited (FPU) in conducting research into monitoring rights-violations against journalists.
The research has been undertaken in the context of supporting the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Agenda and SDG indicator 16.10.1. The indicator proposes the recording of the number of verified cases of killing, enforced disappearance, torture, arbitrary detention, kidnapping and other harmful acts committed against journalists annually.
The research project has examined how data on violations against journalists is collected, and identifies key data challenges, including a lack of data on the full range of SDG 16.10.1 violation categories. Informed by these data gaps the research develops a proposal for a methodological framework for bridging these and for facilitating improved data collection to better understand and prevent future attacks, as well as impunity for such violations.
Sara Torsner, Research Fellow, Centre for Freedom of the Media, University of Sheffield
Gemma Horton, Impact Fellow, Centre for Freedom of the Media, University of Sheffield
