* International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists
No one has been brought to justice in nearly 80% of the 261 cases of journalists murdered in retaliation for their work in the past decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) 2023 Impunity Index, a tally of countries where journalists are murdered and perpetrators elude justice.
“As journalist murders continue to go unpunished in nearly 80% of cases globally, in both democracies and authoritarian countries, the message is clear: journalists are fair game,” said CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg. “Murder is the ultimate form of censorship. Swift, transparent, independent local investigations are critical, and political will can change the course of justice to stem the pervasive impunity in cases of journalists killed for their work.”
For the first time, the index includes Haiti, listed at third place amid the country’s mounting security crisis, which has been aggravated by pervasive gang violence and political instability under a caretaker government, and further exacerbated by a series of natural disasters. In such a perilous environment, journalists are forced to work in a climate of almost total lawlessness, afraid of being targeted for their reporting and often terrified into self-censorship.
Syria, which has been on CPJ’s index for a decade, reached number one as the country with the worst impunity record globally. Somalia, reaching its 16th year on the index, is the world’s second-worst offender. All of the top three countries on the index are unstable and plagued with violence. Nonetheless, impunity is also continuously present in functional democracies such as Brazil, Mexico, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
CPJ’s index, released in the leadup to the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, on November 2, shows the ubiquity of impunity. Somalia, Iraq, Mexico, the Philippines, Pakistan, and India have been on the index every year since its inception in 2008. Syria, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Brazil also have become continuous fixtures—a sobering reminder of the persistence of impunity.
The index charts the prevailing challenges to deliver justice for journalists killed in direct reprisal for their reporting. Beyond the indexed decade, CPJ research further underscores the entrenched nature of impunity. Since 1992, CPJ has found that full justice—where all the perpetrators have been convicted—has only been achieved for 47 murdered journalists, which is fewer than 5% of cases.
Yet changes to a country’s internal politics and international pressure can help engender accountability. This was the case for Peruvian journalist Hugo Bustios Saavedra, who was murdered in 1988. It took nearly 35 years for a former Peruvian army intelligence chief to be sentenced for perpetrating his murder.
As an early collaborator on the U.N. plan of Action on Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, CPJ renews its calls for action by governments to tackle impunity. Together with other civil society groups, CPJ continues to call on governments to ensure or boost funding and training for dedicated units to investigate crimes against the press.
Where national safety mechanisms exist—such as Mexico and Brazil—governments must provide appropriate funding and training, while optimizing and tailoring these plans as security and justice patterns shift or fail to make progress. Similarly, countries committed to media freedom should prioritize well-coordinated diplomatic efforts that center journalist safety.
