"CPJ’s analysis of global rates of impunity in journalist killings over the past seven years shows that they have for the most part gotten worse. There are some encouraging signs in the data. The number of convictions of suspects behind these crimes appears to be slightly on the rise, but thi s number remains small in comparison to the tally of new victims each year. At the heart of the problem is a persistent lack of political will to see justice through in the hundreds of cases in which journalists have been fatally shot, bombed, or beaten because of what they were reporting on. In the few instances it has been exercised, usually in response to mounting domestic and international pressure, there has been progress in the form of partial and, more rarely, complete justice for the victims. But the norm is for the suspected perpetrators— politicians, members of the military, and other figures with power and influence in their societies—to escape justice. This pattern particularly applies to those who commission assassinations of journalists." (Conclusion, page 36)