International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists

Please watch an interview with Frank La Rue, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, on Facebook Live.

Video Message from the UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, Frank La Rue, on the occasion of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists

In the past decade more than 800 journalists have been killed for reporting the news and bringing information to the public: on average one death every week. In nine out of ten cases the killers go unpunished. Impunity leads to more killings and is often a symptom of worsening conflict and the breakdown of law and judicial systems. UNESCO is concerned that impunity damages whole societies by covering up serious human rights abuses, corruption, and crime. Governments, civil society, the media, and everyone concerned to uphold the rule of law are being asked to join in the global efforts to end impunity.

It is in recognition of the far-reaching consequences of impunity, especially of crimes against journalists, that the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/68/163 at its 68th session in 2013 which proclaimed 2 November as the ‘International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists’ (IDEI). The Resolution urged Member States to implement definite measures countering the present culture of impunity. The date was chosen in commemoration of the assassination of two French journalists in Mali on 2 November 2013.

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UNESCO Director-General's Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity

The new UNESCO figures on killings and impunity
2 November 2016
New UNESCO statistics on the killings of journalists and the status of judicial investigations into these crimes are now available. These statistics are from the UNESCO's Director-General 2016 Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity, which is elaborated in the context of UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC). On November 17 this year, the Director-General’s Report will be presented to the 39 Member States of the IPDC at its 30th Council session.

UNESCO’s social media campaign ‘My Killers are still free’ on the findings of the Director-General’s Report is available here.