UN Secretary-General: At Least 34 Journalists Killed in Past Year, Most Killers Unpunished
In a message for the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, observed on November 2, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at least 34 journalists have been killed for their work in the past year, and that six out of seven killings of journalists go unpunished.
Guterres said attacks on journalists often begin with verbal and legal threats and escalate to intimidation, arbitrary detention and murder; when journalists are silenced, corruption, crime and human rights abuses flourish. In conflict settings, he said, impunity for killing journalists is close to 100 percent.
He noted one area of progress: since the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists was launched in 2012, impunity in non-conflict settings has fallen from 94 percent to 77 percent, still an unacceptably high level.
Guterres warned that a culture of impunity enables more violence, weakens democratic institutions and erodes public trust, and called on governments and justice systems to investigate every crime against journalists swiftly, independently and effectively.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 照片：中国记协新闻发布厅（资料图），N509FZ 摄，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 4.0 授权 / Press hall photo by N509FZ, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
