UN renews call to counter culture of impunity

MANILA, Philippines - The United Nations has warned that crimes against journalists ran rampant the world over and called for immediate action to secure justice for those who have been attacked or killed in the line of duty.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued the warning during the observance of International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists the other day.

The UN chief said concrete steps from all countries are necessary to ensure that media professionals are guaranteed space to operate free from harassment and intimidation.

For the past 10 years, 827 journalists have been killed, with only eight percent of perpetrators held accountable, the UN reported.

In the Philippines, a total of 70 killings were recorded from 2006 to 2015.

Of the figure, only five cases or seven percent have been resolved, 58 or 83 percent unresolved, and seven or 10 percent without information received, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The Director General’s Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity, released on Nov. 2, said eight percent of 827 cases of killings of journalists worldwide from 2006-2015 have been resolved.

Forty percent of the cases are considered “ongoing,” meaning that either a police or judicial inquiry is still underway or the cases have been archived or deemed to be unresolved.

In 51 percent of the cases, either no information was received or the member-state in whose jurisdiction the killing occurred sent only an acknowledgment of receiving the UN Director-General’s request.

The figures do not include journalists who, on a daily basis, suffer from non-fatal attacks such as torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, intimidation and harassment in both conflict and non-conflict situations.

UNESCO also cited specific risks faced by women journalists such as sexual attacks.

Each year, the agency releases a report with the latest facts and figures on violence toward journalists around the world.

According to its report, 2015 was the second deadliest year since 2006, with 115 journalists killed, including 10 media workers in the unprecedented attack against the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Journalists are also kidnapped, arbitrarily detained, tortured, intimidated and harassed, both on and offline.

Freelance journalists are more vulnerable as they often work without adequate protection large media outlets provide, the UN said.

While the overwhelming majority of journalists murdered are men, this should not obscure the fact that women journalists face additional risks such as gender-based threats, harassment, intimidation, violence and rape, it said.