Iraq, Mexico, Syria and the Philippines are the four countries in the world in which more journalists have been killed since 1993 to the present, according to the data offered by the Observatory of killed Journalists by UNESCO. The total number of journalists killed during the last 25 years around the world is 1,287.
Iraq has been the most dangerous territory to practice journalism during the last quarter of a century. In this country, a total of 193 journalists have been murdered since 1993. The second most dangerous country in the world for journalists is Mexico, where 99 journalists have been killed in the period analyzed. And with practically the same figures are Syria (98 journalists murdered) and the Philippines (97).
In thirteen other countries, the figure of 20 murdered journalists has been exceeded during the last 25 years: Pakistan (70), Somalia (63), Afghanistan (62), Brazil (46), Colombia (39), Algeria and India (39) , Honduras (37), Russia (35), Yemen (34), Libya (23), Palestine (21) and Bangladesh (20).
UNESCO keeps an interactive database updated with the details of each murder.
#TruthNeverDies
This Friday, November 2, 2018 marks the International Day to End the Impunity of Crimes against Journalists, established by the United Nations five years ago.
According to the general director of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, this day “is an opportunity to evaluate the efforts made to respond to the security problems faced by journalists, in their research and publication work, and to the impunity for the attacks and crimes that too often continue to suffer. ”
Azoulay pointed out that “certainly, in these five years significant progress has been made and public opinion and political leaders have increased their awareness of the issue of impunity”, but there is still a lot to be done.
Since 2006, UNESCO has condemned the murder of 1,010 journalists and media professionals, and nine out of ten cases have not been brought to justice.
For this reason, and with the aim of raising public awareness of the problem of impunity for crimes against journalists, UNESCO has presented for this November 2 a new international campaign: #TruthNeverDies.
The objective is “to promote the publication of articles written by journalists killed in the exercise of their profession, or in homage to them”. To facilitate the dissemination of the campaign, UNESCO has developed a set of tools aimed at the media that wish to participate in the operation.
“We have the responsibility of not letting crimes against journalists go unpunished and guarantee them safe and favorable working conditions for the development of a free and pluralist press. Only under these conditions can we build just, peaceful and truly open societies, “said the Director General of UNESCO.
About the journalists murdered between 2006 and 2017, 93% were local and the remaining 7% correspondents or foreign special envoys. 93% of the murdered professionals were men and 7% women.
