UNESCO Report Highlights Dangers Facing Journalists, Calls for End to Impunity

More than 1700 journalists were killed all around the world from 2006 to 2024, UNESCO reported that out of which 85% cases were unsolved. These figures released at today’s International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists illuminates the need to defend journalists. According to this year’s UNESCO Director-General’s Report, the murder of journalists rose by 38% from the previous year, especially in Gaza, where more media deaths in modern wars have been recorded. The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has asked governments to act to end this crisis by protecting journalists and bringing the culprits to book.

Journalist Safety and Rising Impunity

According to the latest UNESCO report the dangers for journalists have risen further and some are killed in places like the Gaza strip. Foreign journalists working in war zones operate under very risky conditions including being harassed, killed or seeing their media houses destroyed. This year’s International Day to End Impunity focuses on the need to safeguard these precious sources of information who keep the world informed yet they go through daily life-threatening situations.

In his message at the start of 2024, UN Secretary-General Gutterres decried the continued attacks on journalists in Gaza as being unprecedented in modern warfare. He urged governments across the world to act on the call to investigate crimes against journalists and bring the perpetrators to book. In his plea he emphasizes that the absence of justice is not only threatening journalists, but also undermining the people’s rights to receive accurate information and transparency.

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Gaza: A Graveyard for Media Voices

Issues in Gaza were at the forefront of what was being discussed at the 2024 United Nations International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East. They said various measures have been taken to ensure that different journalists in the region do not speak and some of the measures included; Frequently, the communication has been cut and the media offices destroyed to give the harsh conditions that hinder the revelations of the operational situation in Gaza to the global world.
Cheikh Niang, the Chairman of the committee at the United Nations on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People stated that more than 130 Palestinian journalists have been murdered since 2023. He emphasized that these journalists were war crime suspects—stories that have never been told because these people are dead. This constant stifling of media voices is a betrayal of the concept of democracy, as well as a denial to the international community of important information.