Global: UNESCO Report Says Impunity for Journalist Killings Rose to 86 Percent as 189 Journalists Died in 2024-2025
UNESCO's Director-General's Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity, published on November 2, says global impunity for journalist killings has risen for the first time since the organisation began measuring it in 2012, reaching 86 percent in 2024-2025, up one percentage point from the previous biennium. A confirmed total of 189 journalists and other media workers lost their lives in 2024-2025, 20 percent more than in the previous two years and the highest number since 2014-2015, with 127 killed in conflict zones, accounting for 67 percent. The biennial report marks the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, observed on November 2.
"Journalists are increasingly paying with their lives for reporting from the frontlines of war and far too often those responsible for their killings are not held accountable," said Director-General Khaled El-Enany, who called for respect for UN Security Council Resolution 2222, adopted unanimously in 2015, which recognises journalists and media personnel as civilians in armed conflict. The report also documented 50 journalists killed in drone strikes in 2024-2025, about 40 percent of those killed in conflict zones, and 15 cases in which journalists were killed while wearing press vests or travelling in vehicles clearly marked "Press."
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message for the Day that at least 34 journalists were killed over the past year, six of every seven such killings go unpunished, and in conflict settings the rate of impunity is close to 100 percent. The report also highlighted progress outside conflict: impunity in non-conflict countries has fallen from 94 percent in 2012 to 77 percent in 2026, and the number of journalist killings in non-conflict zones, at 85, is the lowest in 18 years.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 照片：联合国教科文组织总部大楼（巴黎），Michel Claude 摄，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 3.0 授权 / Photo: UNESCO headquarters in Paris, by Michel Claude, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
