"Many local journalists covering issues like corruption and organised crime can be considered human rights defenders (HRDs) exposed to high levels of violence and impunity. In this chapter, Mitchell examines what protection is available for such journalists via the dedicated international normative
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framework. She then explores the overlap between such journalists and the HRD concept, before outlining the international protection regime for HRDs and how it compares to the equivalent journalists’ system. Given the similarities between the security situations of such journalists and HRDs and the challenges faced by the regimes, she suggests there are ways international actors can better collaborate that could potentially lead to improved protection for both groups—albeit on a small scale in the absence of increased resources and political will." (Abstract)
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"This article maintains that current international law fails to recognize the specific risks associated with the journalistic profession, and that the fragmented, non-binding and unenforceable initiatives on journalists' rights adopted to date have proven ineffective. It argues that a dedicated inte
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rnational instrument targeting violence against journalists, accompanied by a compliance-monitoring mechanism, would significantly improve the protection of journalists and recognize the impact of impunity for attacks against them on audiences' rights and society at large. The article supports this position by highlighting the weaknesses in UN and regional human rights instruments and interpretive jurisprudence, as well as loopholes in humanitarian law. It concludes with suggestions for a new instrument, demonstrating why it would ensure better safeguards for journalists and societal interests in the media." (Abstract)
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"This report takes a look at a selection of the innovative, successful ways media companies, individual journalists and civil society organizations are coming together to improve journalist safety. These are cases of people taking the initiative, of acting on behalf of the profession, of not sitting
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back as disempowered victims. The report is not an overview of all the work that is being done in this domain. It is not full of statistics and data. It is, instead, a collection of stories, told in the words of the motivated people who are dedicated to protecting courageous journalists with pro-active measures to make them safer." (Introduction, page 9)
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"Ce rapport met en lumière une sélection de voies et moyens novateurs et efficaces grâce auxquels des entreprises de presse, des journalistes et des organisations de la société civile se regroupent pour améliorer la sécurité des journalistes. Ce sont des cas de gens qui prennent des initiati
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ves d’agir en faveur de la profession et se refusent de s’asseoir en victimes impuissantes. Le rapport n’est pas une pas une vue d’ensemble du travail accompli dans ce domaine. Il n’est pas truffé de statistiques et de données. C’est plutôt un recueil d’histoires, racontées dans les termes des personnes concernées dévouées à protéger des journalistes courageux par des moyens dynamiques censés les mettre à l’abri." (Introduction, page 9)
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"Este informe presenta una selección de las formas innovadoras y exitosas por las cuales los medios de comunicación, sus profesionales y las organizaciones sociales se están agrupando para mejorar la seguridad de los periodistas. Estos son casos de personas que han tomado la iniciativa, en nombre
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de la profesión, de no quedarse de brazos cruzados como víctimas indefensas. Este informe no es un pantallazo de todo el trabajo que se está llevando a cabo en este campo. No está lleno de estadísticas ni datos. En cambio, es una colección de historias, contadas con las palabras de la gente motivada que se dedica a proteger a los valerosos periodistas tomando medidas para que su profesión sea más segura." (Introducción, página 9)
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"This study investigates the challenges faced by local journalists caught between the global “war on terror” and its local consequences in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Threats and impunity are commonplace in this buffer zone bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, compell
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ing scores of native journalists to flee with their immediate families to the relative peace of nearby Peshawar, where they continue to report on issues back home. In-depth interviews with local journalists reveal how threats and impunity work as structural constraints that affect reporting. Working under the logic of neoliberalism, media outlets extract what they can out of these reporters, but the risks are often considered journalists’ personal responsibility and add to their dependence on colleagues. This chapter offers valuable insight into the concerns of local journalists, and demonstrates how they resist the power holders in Pakistan and adapt to the complicated intersections of state, militant and foreign interests." (Abstract)
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"Civic organizations, groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, play a key role in the production and circulation of human rights discourses. Scholars have examined the strategies civic organizations use to attract media coverage, the permeability of the news media to human rights me
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ssages, and the effects of these interactions on civic organizations, journalism and human rights discourses more generally. This chapter explores several questions by reviewing the available scholarship on civic organizations and the news media. It suggests that despite new developments in journalism and advocacy, civic organizations continue to face an uphill, and uneven, battle in the struggle for publicity. The chapter reviews the key changes in media, human rights and civic organizations that drive growing interest in their interrelations. Scholars of human rights organizations and the news media are still working to put together a parsimonious explanation for this state of affairs." (Abstract)
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"This overview report highlights key themes that affect journalists’ safety globally, including: 1) impunity for crimes against journalists, which fosters killings and abductions; 2) the range of dangers facing journalists; 3) the lack of resources for comprehensive security training and the hands
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-off approach of many news media organizations, particularly related to freelance and local journalists in violent societies lacking press freedom; and 4) steps being taken to address the issue. The report concludes with recommendations for U.N. member states and news media organizations. It comes in the context of growing attention worldwide, much of it inspired by the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity." (Introduction)
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"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
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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)
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"Work done internationally to address impunity concentrates on removing blanket amnesties and establishing commissions of inquiry into past atrocities. Everyday impunity—the impossibility of bringing state officers to account for routinized violent crimes against other individuals—gets less atte
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ntion, even though its effects on public life are insidious. Studying the 2014 killing of a journalist, we identify modes for the production of everyday impunity in Myanmar that emerge from earlier periods of unmediated military rule but that today are coming to resemble practices in neighbouring countries. Accounts from Bangladesh and Thailand reveal how impunity can persist in new political conditions, producing insecurity and hampering efforts for more inclusive forms of government. We close by urging scholars to remain attentive to their responsibilities in the face of impunity, calling on them not to participate in projects that have the effect of concealing violent crime by state officers, and denying victims justice." (Abstract)
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"Ending the culture of impunity requires strengthening the culture of resistance. Impunity results in the dearth or absence of press freedom which, in turn, has deleterious effects on the practice of journalism as the people are deprived of relevant information that could help shape public opinion.
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Effective governance can only be achieved if there is an atmosphere conducive to press freedom and other basic freedoms. The local and global campaigns to end impunity should continue so that the culture of resistance would be strengthened and the specter of the culture of impunity would be finally gone. The Philippines proves to be an interesting case study as it is one of the freest press in Asia but has one of the most number of journalists killed worldwide. The most notable example of media killings is the massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao (located in the southern part of the Philippines) where 32 journalists and media workers were among the 58 people killed. The situation in the Philippines is alarming given the prevailing culture of impunity." (Abstract)
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"This paper serves as an overview of the global pattern of crimes committed against media workers, the impunity connected with such acts, and the steps both the international community and individual states have taken to confront the situation. The first chapter introduces the magnitude of the trend
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of violence journalists face, the impunity for said crimes, and its impact on freedom of expression and democracy. This overview draws on the statistics of non-governmental organizations and other international bodies to demonstrate the global nature of the problem. The second chapter explains the methods of international organs— such as the United Nations, the organization of American States, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe— have employed to combat such impunity. Declarations, resolutions, plans of actions and judicial opinions from international courts all inform this capsulation. The third chapter describes the programs countries have implemented to confront the issue, specifically within Latin America. Such innovations include the creation of special prosecutors, the federalization of crimes against journalists, and protection programs." (Page 3)
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"Worried by the rising incidence of arrests, detention, jail, harassment and even murder of journalists across the world, all of which are crimes against press freedom, this paper takes a look at the reasons for the unpunished offences against press men and women and examines the efforts made to com
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bat the impunity of such crimes. To accomplish this objective, the paper reviews the place of the press in society as the Forth Estate of the Realm; and discusses the specific roles of the media for the state, politics and religion. The work which is anchored on the social Responsibility Theory of the press, does an overview of press freedom, presents a roll call of past and contemporary cases of assault on the media; and lists possible causes of impunity of offenders against press freedom. Stating the efforts made to combat impunity of offenders against press freedom, it mentions the handicaps of the efforts to combat impunity and adduces suggestions for combating the impunity of crimes against press freedom." (Abstract)
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"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 nu
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mber 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)
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"This report provides analysis of the 593 killings of journalists as condemned by the Director-General of UNESCO between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2013 with an emphasis on cases which took place in 2012 and 2013. With 123 killings, 2012 constitutes the deadliest year for journalists since the r
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eport was first compiled in 2008. In 2013, the overall number of killings was 91 deaths, a decrease by a quarter compared to 2012. However, this figure still represents the second highest number of killed journalists since the report was first presented. “Traditional media” have been the most affected by fatal attacks. Print journalists constitute the largest number, with 244 journalists killed (41 percent). This is followed by journalists working in television with 154 killed (26 percent) and radio with 123 killed (21 percent). The vast majority of the 593 journalists killed over this period have been local (around 94 percent). Approximately 94 percent of all killed journalists are men. Nevertheless women journalists face specific risks in their work including sexual attacks and harassment which is not reflected in the statistics of fatal attacks. Overall, the Arab States region registered the highest number of killings of journalists at 190 deaths (32 percent) of the total. Asia and the Pacific region accounted for 179 deaths (30 percent), Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region for 123 deaths (21 percent), African region for 76 deaths (13 percent), and Europe and the North America region for 25 deaths (4 percent)." (Summary)
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