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The Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity: Report by the Director-General to the Intergovernmental Council of the IPDC (thirtieth Session)

UNESCO, International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) (2016), 67 pp.
"This report provides an overview of a decade of killings of journalists, media workers and social media producers, between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2015. The extent of the risks faced by those exercising their right to express opinions and disseminate information is demonstrated by the figure of 827 killings recorded by UNESCO over ten years. To this, one needs to add the numerous other violations endured by journalists, which include kidnappings, arbitrary detention, torture, intimidation and harassment, both offline and online, and seizure or destruction of material. Overcoming all these threats is needed for measuring progress on the Sustainable Development Goal Target 16.10 on ensuring public access to information and protecting fundamental freedoms within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This Report is focused exclusively on the worst violations, i.e. the killings of journalists, in line with the IPDC Council’s 2008 Decision on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, which was reinforced by subsequent decisions in 2010, 2012, and 2014." (Executive summary)
1 Executive summary, 5
2 Background and context, 7
3 Journalists’ killings in 2014 and 2015: key findings, 16
4 A decade of violence against journalists: analysis of the killings of journalists between 2006 and 2015, 19
5 Methodology for the analysis of Member States’ responses on the status of judicial investigations, 24
6 Member States’ responses: status of the judicial inquiries on cases of journalists killed from 2006 to 2015, 26
7 Conclusion, 30