Any journalist who has been trolled, harassed, or otherwise attacked online knows how frightening the experience can be, and how isolated one can feel as a result. But newsrooms around the world are increasingly waking up to the fact that their staff need dedicated support to deal with the growing online abuse. Megan Clement rounded up tips from experts for GIJN.
Yemeni journalist Fuad Rajeh, who is based in Jordan, decided to expose threats to freedom of expression in his country by looking into the cases of two activists and two journalists who faced online threats — and, in one case, ended up being killed — for speaking their minds on social media. Here’s how he did it.
Women muckrakers are breaking important stories around the world, but there are still relatively few female investigative journalists. To help them find communities and support, GIJN has compiled a comprehensive list of global resources designed for women journalists.
Safety, fake news and collaboration dominated Brazil’s 13th Abraji Congress, where more than 750 journalists gathered in São Paulo for 70 panels and 22 courses and workshops on investigative journalism.
In September, the Danish national newspaper Berlingske, in partnership with the OCCRP and other international media partners, exposed a complex money laundering scheme led by Azerbaijan’s elite. The stories revealed that, between 2012 and 2014, $2.9 billion connected to the country was siphoned through European companies and banks. Here’s how they got the story.
For International Day to End Impunity, our excerpt today is an annex from a new UN report. It makes for a chilling read — an updated list of the status of judicial inquiries into journalist killings from 2006 to 2015. Out of 827 journalists killed in the past decade, only 63 have been resolved. The message right now is clear: opponents of a free press can literally get away with murder. Until we fix the problem of impunity, it will be impossible to meet the UN development goal of ensuring public access to information.
Today, November 2, marks International Day to End Impunity. Since 2014, the UN and press freedom groups have commemorated the day to spotlight the glaring number of unresolved journalists’ murders and the lack of punishment for their perpetrators around the world. This year’s awareness campaign is aptly titled “My Killers Are Still Free.”
For eight years India has been a fixture on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ annual Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are slain and their killers go free. Perpetrators are seldom arrested and CPJ has not recorded a single conviction upheld in any of the cases of journalists murdered in India in direct relation to their work.
There is a war on journalism around the world, and those attacking us are literally getting away with murder. Over the past decade more than 700 journalists have been killed — and less than one in ten of those cases have been solved. On average, a journalist is killed every five days while practicing his or her profession. Join your colleagues this November 2 for International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. There will be events around the world spearheaded by UNESCO, the UN agency with a mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom.
Impunity is defined as “without punishment, without consequences.” It has become a shorthand way to describe the thousands of attacks on journalists and freedom of expression around the world each year. IFEX, the global network of 88 groups defending free expression, each year organizes an International Day to End Impunity. This year it takes place November 23, with events every day this month. Over the past ten years, more than 500 journalists have been killed, and in 9 of 10 cases their killers have escaped — with impunity.
