UN and UNESCO Urge Protection for Women Journalists in Conflict Zones: 189 Journalists Killed in Two Years, Impunity at 86%
UN News reported on October 28 that, ahead of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on November 2, UNESCO and UN Women brought together women journalists from Afghanistan, Colombia, the Philippines, Somalia and Sudan in New York on October 27. Journalists and UN leaders called for urgent action to protect the women who document conflict from crisis zones, as online abuse, gender-based attacks and impunity ramp up the threats they face.
Begoña Lasagabaster, Director of UNESCO's Division for Gender Equality, recalled the exhibition "They Told the World About It," documenting almost 200 women journalists from more than 25 countries who reported on the Spanish Civil War 90 years ago. "While much of the world counted battles, these women counted lives — they wrote about hunger, displacement, about what war does to a mother, a father, a child, a city, a country," she said. Nobel Peace Prize laureate and journalist Maria Ressa added: "Every voice for peace counts, but a voice only counts if it is heard, if that woman survives being heard."
Highlights from UNESCO's forthcoming Director-General's report show that 189 journalists were killed in violent attacks in 2024 and 2025 alone; 67 per cent of the killings occurred in conflict zones, and 50 journalists were killed by drones. The overall impunity rate for journalist killings has risen by one percentage point to 86 per cent — the first increase since UNESCO began measuring in 2012 — leaving almost nine out of ten killings judicially unresolved. Women journalists also face physical violence, legal harassment, psychological trauma and online campaigns designed to discredit their reporting.
Recommendations from the panel included investigating attacks promptly and impartially and recognising the gender-based nature of the violence; treating online violence as violence; making protection fast and accessible, including emergency visas, relocation, legal aid and psychosocial care that reach local and freelance journalists; holding tech platforms accountable; funding women-led journalism; making newsrooms safe; and releasing women journalists jailed for their work. UNESCO's campaign for this year's International Day runs under the theme "Threats Evolve, Impunity Endures."
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：一名佩戴记者证的女记者在街头采访拍摄（资料图）。照片：CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: A woman journalist wearing a press credential photographs an assignment on the street (file photo). CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
