Media Freedom Coalition statement on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists 2024

The Media Free­dom Coali­tion com­mem­o­rates the 10^th anniver­sary of the Inter­na­tion­al Day to End Impuni­ty for Crimes against Jour­nal­ists to high­light the indis­pens­able role of jour­nal­ists and media work­ers report­ing from cri­sis- and con­flict-zones in uncov­er­ing the most undoc­u­ment­ed affairs of our time, and to stress the dan­gers they face due to their ded­i­ca­tion.

The Media Free­dom Coali­tion is a part­ner­ship of coun­tries work­ing togeth­er proac­tive­ly to advo­cate for media free­dom at home and abroad. The MFC also advo­cates for the safe­ty of jour­nal­ists and media work­ers, and holds to account those who harm jour­nal­ists and severe­ly restrict them from doing their job. The MFC was estab­lished in July 2019 at the Glob­al Con­fer­ence for Media Free­dom and now com­pris­es over 50 mem­ber states from six con­ti­nents. 

While much has been done dur­ing the last ten years to pro­vide jour­nal­ists and media work­ers with the safe­ty and fun­da­men­tal stan­dards demand­ed by their pro­fes­sion, the decade also wit­nessed over 800 killings, with the impuni­ty rate for these crimes reach­ing 90%. Par­tic­u­lar­ly in the case of cri­sis- and con­flict-relat­ed inci­dents, UNESCO record­ed a wor­ry­ing trend of dou­bling num­bers over the past three years. In 2023, jour­nal­ists killed in con­flict con­sti­tut­ed more than half of over­all killings of jour­nal­ists.

These tragedies are only the tip of the ice­berg. In emer­gency set­tings, jour­nal­ists face phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal attacks, equip­ment con­fis­ca­tion or denial of access to report­ing sites. New forms of online harass­ment, sur­veil­lance and dis­in­for­ma­tion have emerged due to fur­ther advance­ment in dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies, which par­tic­u­lar­ly affect jour­nal­ists and increase their vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. Oth­er threats to jour­nal­ists, such as eco­nom­ic inse­cu­ri­ty, con­flicts or attempts to per­se­cute, intim­i­date or influ­ence them, can fur­ther aggra­vate these ten­den­cies, thus forc­ing an even greater num­ber of jour­nal­ists into exile or to stop work­ing alto­geth­er. 

Repressions against journalists in Belarus 2024

Unfor­tu­nate­ly many gov­ern­ments, in spite of their oblig­a­tions through inter­na­tion­al Human Rights law, are threat­en­ing press free­dom around the world. We are wit­ness­ing the pro­lif­er­a­tion of so-called for­eign agent laws and dis­in­for­ma­tion bills, which are designed to crim­i­nal­ize jour­nal­ism and deny the public´s access to reli­able, inde­pen­dent, and diverse news. Civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions have doc­u­ment­ed hun­dreds of jour­nal­ists impris­oned for their work, many of them incom­mu­ni­ca­do. Such a cli­mate con­tributes to what UNESCO is terming “zones of silence” open­ing up in many con­flict set­tings, with severe con­se­quences both for local pop­u­la­tions and the world at large. 

We urge the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to:

• first, enforce the uni­ver­sal prin­ci­ples of pro­tect­ing jour­nal­ists, espe­cial­ly UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 2222, to pro­mote the safe­ty of media work­ers and fos­ter their resilience, ensur­ing they can car­ry out their crit­i­cal work as safe­ly as pos­si­ble in cri­sis, con­flict and post-con­flict sce­nar­ios – this includes tak­ing appro­pri­ate steps to ensure account­abil­i­ty for crimes com­mit­ted against jour­nal­ists, media pro­fes­sion­als, and asso­ci­at­ed per­son­nel in sit­u­a­tions of armed con­flict;
• sec­ond, to sup­port jour­nal­ists in exile, for exam­ple by using instru­ments such as emer­gency visas and increas­ing their resilience against transna­tion­al repres­sion; and
• last­ly, to join forces in search of inno­v­a­tive solu­tions for over­com­ing cen­sor­ship, improv­ing dig­i­tal infra­struc­ture, reach­ing new audi­ences, and hold­ing per­pe­tra­tors of vio­lence on jour­nal­ists account­able.