Crisis-hit Haiti has emerged as one of the countries where murderers of journalists are most likely to go free, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2023 Global Impunity Index has found. A devastating combination of gang violence, chronic poverty, political instability, and a dysfunctional judiciary are behind the Caribbean country’s first inclusion on CPJ’s annual list of nations where killers get away with murder.
Haiti now ranks as the world’s third-worst impunity offender, behind Syria and Somalia respectively. Somalia, along with Iraq, Mexico, the Philippines, Pakistan, and India, have been on the index every year since its inception. Syria, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Brazil also have been there for years – a sobering reminder of the persistent and pernicious nature of impunity.
The reasons for these countries’ failure to prosecute journalists’ killers range from conflict to corruption, insurgency to inadequate law enforcement, and lack of political interest in punishing those willing to kill independent journalists. These states include democracies and autocracies, nations in turmoil and those with stable governments. Some are emerging from years of war, but a slowdown of hostilities has not ended their persecution of journalists. And as impunity becomes entrenched, it signals an indifference likely to embolden future killers and shrink independent reporting as alarmed journalists either flee their countries, dial back on their reporting, or leave the profession entirely.
This year’s index documents 261 journalists murdered in connection with their work between September 1, 2013 – the year the United Nations declared November 2 as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists – and August 31, 2023. It finds that during this 10-year period, no-one has been held to account in 204 – more than 78% – of these cases.
(Journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas war that began on October 7 are not included here because their deaths fall outside of the 10-year index period.)
A 78% impunity rate is a slight improvement on the 90% rate CPJ recorded a decade ago. But it should not be seen as reason for optimism. Impunity remains rampant and the stark reality is that nearly four out of every five killers of journalists are still getting away with murder.
Overall, CPJ has recorded the murders of 956 journalists in connection with their work since it began tracking them in 1992. A total of 757 – more than 79%– have gone wholly unprosecuted.
CPJ’s impunity index includes countries with at least five unsolved murders during a 10-year span. Only cases involving full impunity are listed; those where some have been convicted, but other suspects remain free – partial impunity – are not. Each country’s ranking is calculated as a proportion of their population size, meaning more populous countries like Mexico and India are lower on the list, in spite of having a higher number of journalist murders.
But the pernicious effects of impunity extend beyond the countries that have become fixtures on CPJ’s annual index. Unpunished murders have an intimidating effect on local journalists everywhere, corroding press freedom and shrinking public-interest reporting.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian journalists interviewed by CPJ for the “Deadly Pattern” report published earlier this year said their coverage had been undermined by escalating fears for their safety after the Israel Defense Forces fatally shot Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh in May 2022. CPJ’s investigation found that no-one had been held accountable for the deaths of 20 journalists by Israeli military fire in 22 years. “The impunity in these cases has severely undermined the freedom of the press, leaving the rights of journalists in precarity,” noted the report. (Israel is not listed in the impunity index because fewer than five journalists killed during the index period are classified as having been targeted for murder.)
In several countries in the European Union, typically considered the safest places for journalists, press freedom has come under increasing pressure, with journalist murders remaining unsolved in Malta, Slovakia, Greece, and the Netherlands.
In Malta and Slovakia, full justice in the killings of Daphne Caruana Galizia and Ján Kuciak is yet to be achieved. Greece has yet to hold anyone accountable for the 2010 killing of Sokratis Giolias, with a recent report by “ A Safer World for the Truth” – a collaboration of rights groups that includes CPJ – finding gaps in authorities’ investigations into the murder of Giolias and the similar killing of Giorgos Karaivaz 11 years later.
In the Netherlands, nine suspects are awaiting trial for the fatal shooting of Dutch reporter Peter R. de Vries as he left a TV studio in 2021. While it remains unclear whether De Vries and Karaivaz were targeted because of their work, colleagues in Greece and Holland have told CPJ their deaths have left lingering insecurity and self-censorship in the media community. De Vries’ death had “a chilling effect on journalists,” Dutch crime reporter Paul Vugts – the Netherlands’ first journalist to receive full police protection because of work-related death threats – told CPJ.
In countries considered less safe for journalists, violent retaliation for their coverage also continues.
In the central African nation of Cameroon, the mutilated corpse of journalist Martinez Zogo was found on January 22, 2023. At least one other journalist with ties to Zogo, Jean-Jacques Ola Bebe, was found dead 12 days later. Several journalists warned by Zogo that they too were on a hit list have fled the country; others opted for self-censorship. “The killing, physical attacks, abduction, torture, and harassment of journalists by Cameroonian police, intelligence agencies, military, and non-state actors continue to have a severe chilling effect [on the media],” noted a July report submitted to the United Nations by a group that included CPJ.
Since 1992, full justice has only been achieved for 47 murdered journalists – fewer than 5%. CPJ’s data shows that factors like international pressure, universal jurisdiction, and changes in government can play instrumental roles in securing that punishment.
One landmark case: Peruvian journalist Hugo Bustíos Saavedra. Bustios was killed in an army ambush on November 24, 1988, while covering the conflict between government forces and Shining Path guerrillas. It took almost 35 years for a Peruvian criminal court to sentence Daniel Urresti Elera, then the army’s intelligence chief in the zone where Bustios was killed, to 12 years in prison for his part in the killing. (Explore a timeline of the Bustios case here.)
Urresti’s conviction resulted from a combination of changing internal politics in Peruvian leadership, the re-opening of investigations into human rights cases after Peru’s Supreme Court effectively struck down the 1995 amnesty law protecting military officers, and ongoing advocacy by rights groups – including CPJ – at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
In the Central African Republic, the August death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian private mercenary group killed in a plane crash two months after ordering his troops to march on Moscow, has led to hopes that those with information about the 2018 murders of three Russian journalists might come forward, writes CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Gulnoza Said. The journalists, Orkhan Dzhemal, Kirill Radchenko and Aleksandr Rastorguyev, were shot dead three days after arriving in the country to investigate Wagner’s activities there.
Universal jurisdiction, which allows a country to prosecute crimes against humanity regardless of where they were committed, can also be an effective tool. Bai Lowe, accused of being a member of the “Junglers” death squad that killed Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara, is on trial in Germany – the first person accused of human rights violations during the dictatorship of Yahya Jammeh to be tried outside Gambia.
International pressure is another factor that may prompt authorities to investigate unsolved killers – even if the probes don’t necessarily lead to prosecution. CPJ’s “Deadly Pattern report about journalists killed by the Israeli military found that authorities were more likely to investigate killings of journalists with foreign passports. “The degree to which Israel investigates, or claims to investigate, journalist killings appears to be related to external pressure,” noted the report.
The Bustios case may have offered a glimmer of hope. But it also underscores that the road to justice can be long and tortuous – and for the vast majority of murdered journalists, it never comes at all.
1) Syria
Fourteen journalists were murdered with full impunity in Syria during the 2023 index period. Ten died between 2013 and 2016, as the initial uprising against the Bashar al-Assad regime widened into a full-scale war involving regional and global powers and the militant Islamic State (IS) began seizing control of Syrian territory. IS is believed to have murdered eight of the 10 killed between 2013 and 2016. Fighting has eased since Assad regained control of most of the country, but Syrian media have been dealt a hard blow as numerous journalists fled into exile and military authorities continue to harass, threaten or detain journalists.
2) Somalia
The worst offender on the index for the last eight years, Somalia dropped below Syria in the 2023 index. This drop to second does not signal an improvement in Somalia’s impunity record, but instead arises from the method used to calculate the rankings: Three of the four journalists murdered in 2013 were killed before September 1 of that year, meaning they fall outside of this year’s index period. Most of the 11 journalists during the index period died between 2013 and 2018, believed to have been killed by Al-Shabaab, an insurgent group which seeks to establish an Islamic state in Somalia. Somalia remains unstable amid a renewed offensive against Al-Shabaab. Covering the insurgent group remains a dangerous, even deadly, assignment. The media are severely hampered in their reporting as journalists continue to face arrests, threats, and harassment.
3) Haiti
Haiti’s entry into the index follows the unsolved murders of six journalists since 2019. Five were killed in 2022 and 2023, among the hundreds of Haitians killed by the criminal gangs that have taken over large parts of Haiti as the country struggles to deal with an economic crisis aggravated by a series of natural disasters and the political void following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Haitian journalists have also been kidnapped and forced to flee their homes amid fears that their work put them at greater risk than other civilians. (Read more about conditions in Haiti here.)
4) South Sudan
The five journalists murdered in South Sudan all died when unidentified gunmen ambushed an official convoy in Western Bahr al Ghazal state on January 25, 2015. South Sudan’s media have long been under pressure in a country plagued by civil war and human rights violations since gaining independence in 2011. CPJ has documented numerous instances of harassment, detention, jailing and the death of a war reporter in crossfire in recent years.
5) Afghanistan
The militant Islamic State has claimed responsibility for killing 13 of the 18 journalists murdered in Afghanistan in the last decade. Ten died in 2018 alone, nine of them in a double suicide bomb attack in Kabul on April 30 that year, and one shot dead the previous week in Kandahar. While the deadly targeting of reporters appears to have slowed since the Taliban returned to office in 2021, large numbers of journalists have fled the country and the group’s escalating repression forced has gutted the country’s once-vibrant media landscape.
6) Iraq
CPJ has not documented any journalists murdered for their work in Iraq since 2017. Fourteen of the 17 listed in CPJ’s database were killed in 2013 and 2015 amid a resurgence of sectarian violence. While the violence has eased, media restrictions and threats against journalists – especially in Iraqi Kurdistan – continue.
7) Mexico
Killings of journalists in Mexico have dropped from last year’s high, but the country remains one of the world’s most dangerous for journalists. Seventeen of the 23 journalists murdered during the index period are believed to have been killed by criminal fire. CPJ has found that the high levels of violence against journalists can be attributed in part to the failure of state and federal authorities to make the environment safer for reporters or even take crimes against the press seriously.
8) Philippines
The Philippines remains a dangerous place to work as a reporter, especially for radio journalists. While Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has adopted a more conciliatory approach toward the media since becoming president in June 2022, CPJ reported that a culture of self-censorship persists and Marcos’ change in tone has not yet been accompanied by substantive actions to undo the damage wrought to press freedom under the Rodrigo Duterte administration. Twenty journalists have been murdered in the Philippines since September 2013; three since Marcos took office.
9) Myanmar
The number of journalists murdered with impunity in Myanmar remains at five, with no new cases documented this year. The country was listed for the first time in 2022, the same year the country’s military junta jailed dozens of journalists and used broad anti-state laws to quash independent reporting in the wake of its coup in February 2021.
10) Brazil
Brazil is working to reestablish good relations with the media following Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s defeat of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in 2022, with the government introducing measures like an Observatory on Violence Against Journalists earlier this year. Brazil did not record any new journalist murders in 2023, but the killers – mostly believed to be criminal groups – of 11 journalists murdered in Brazil during the index period remain at large. The 2022 murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous issues expert Bruno Pereira in the Amazon continue to underscore the dangers faced by environmental reporters in the region.
11) Pakistan
Pakistan, one of the countries that has appeared on the index every year since its inception, recorded eight journalists killed with impunity during this year’s index period. Four are believed to have been killed by criminals, two by political groups. CPJ has documented numerous press freedom violations in the country following the ouster of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in April 2022.
12) India
India too has appeared on CPJ’s impunity index every year since 2008. The majority of the 19 murdered since September 2013 are believed to have been killed by criminals over reporting on topics ranging from environmental issues to local politics, but journalists are facing increasing pressure ahead of the country’s 2024 election. In addition to detentions, police raids and blocks of news websites, authorities are using a counterterrorism law against the media.
Arlene Getz is editorial director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Now based in New York, she has worked in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East as a foreign correspondent, editor, and editorial executive for Reuters, CNN, and Newsweek. Follow her on LinkedIn.
CPJ’s Global Impunity Index calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population. For this index, CPJ examined journalist murders that occurred between September 1, 2013, and August 31, 2023, and remain unsolved. Only those nations with five or more unsolved cases are included on the index. CPJ defines murder as the targeted killing of a journalist, whether premeditated or spontaneous, in direct reprisal for the journalist’s work. This index does not include cases of journalists killed in combat zones or while on dangerous assignments, such as coverage of protests that turn violent. Cases are considered unsolved when no convictions have been obtained, even if suspects have been identified and are in custody. Cases in which some but not all suspects have been convicted are classified as partial impunity. Cases in which the suspected perpetrators were killed during apprehension also are categorized as partial impunity. The index only tallies murders that have been carried out with complete impunity. It does not include those for which partial justice has been achieved. Population data from the World Bank’s 2022 World Development Indicators, viewed in October 2023, were used in calculating each country’s rating.
]]>On Wednesday, August 23, a suspected Turkish drone strike in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled northeast hit a car belonging to the all-female broadcaster JIN TV, killing driver Najm el-Din Faisal Haj Sinan and wounding journalist Dalila Agid, according to news reports and Dijla Eito, a member of JIN TV’s board, who spoke to CPJ.
Eito said Agid had undergone surgery and was in an intensive care unit as of Friday.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic drone attack that killed driver Najm el-Din Faisal and injured journalist Dalila Agid while they were working in northeastern Syria,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Turkish authorities should swiftly launch an investigation into this attack, determine who was responsible and if the reporting team was targeted, and hold the perpetrators to account.”
Eito told CPJ that the JIN TV team was driving near the Turkish border, between the Syrian cities of Amuda, where the broadcaster has a studio, and Qamishli, when they were attacked. Eito said Agid had been covering an event to commemorate the death of two Kurdish officials in another drone attack in June.
“She regained consciousness temporarily after suffering a severe injury to her neck and losing her left arm. However, she soon slipped back into an unconscious state. Numerous explosive fragments remained within her body,” Eito told CPJ.
In a statement, the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northeastern Syria condemned the attack and called on the international community to intervene and ensure accountability.
CPJ emailed the Turkish president’s office for comment but did not receive a reply. CPJ was unable to find any contact information for the Turkish Defense Ministry or any comments it had issued about the attack.
Turkey has previously said that its strikes in northern Syria target Kurdish fighters that it considers terrorists.
]]>On July 8, the ministry said it had canceled the accreditation of two local journalists working for the BBC over “false” and “politicized” reporting, according to a statement by the ministry, the BBC, and multiple media reports. Those sources did not identify the journalists by name.
The ministry’s statement said one journalist worked as a radio correspondent, and the other as a correspondent and camera operator. It did not specify what reporting led to the revocation, but said the BBC had been “warned more than once” about “misleading reports relying on statements and testimonies from terrorist and anti-Syrian authorities.”
“The Syrian government has long restricted the media, and the recent revocation of two BBC reporters’ accreditation shows that the government remains intent on stifling independent voices,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Authorities should reverse this decision and allow all members of the press to work freely and without fear of reprisal.”
In late June, the BBC published an investigative report linking the trade of an amphetamine drug with President Bashar al-Assad’s family and the Syrian Armed Forces. Syria, which has been roiled by civil war since 2011, has previously denied playing a role in the amphetamine trade.
In an email to CPJ, the BBC said that the outlet would “continue to provide impartial news and information to our audiences across the Arabic-speaking world.”
CPJ emailed the Syrian Ministry of Information for comment but did not receive any response.
At least five journalists were imprisoned in Syria at the time of CPJ’s 2022 prison census.
]]>Abdullah was killed and Mohammed Jarada, reporter of Sterk TV, was injured during the Turkish airstrikes on November 20, according to an ANHA executive and Jarada, who both spoke to CPJ by phone, and news reports.
ANHA is a news agency affiliated with the Kurdish administration of northeast Syria and broadcasts in six different languages.
“Turkish authorities must immediately conduct a full and transparent investigation on whether Hawar News Agency (ANHA) reporter Essam Abdullah and other journalists were targeted during Turkish airstrikes in the region,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “Journalists are civilians and should be protected while doing their jobs.”
The Turkish strikes on Kurdish militant bases in northern Syria and northern Iraq left dozens—including at least 11 civilians—dead a week after a deadly bombing on an Istanbul street. Turkish authorities blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian People’s Protection Units (YPG) for the Istanbul attack; both groups have denied the charge.
According to an ANHA report, Abdullah headed toward a bombed area in the village of Tqil Baqil in the northeastern Syrian city of Derik after the first round of airstrikes. He was killed while reporting there when Turkish aircraft bombed the area again.
Mustafa Allua, head of ANHA, told CPJ by phone that the strikes occurred at 1:10 a.m. on November 20. “Essam told me that he will go to the targeted village to cover because there are civilian casualties. I agreed,” Allua said.
“I was in contact with Essam until 2 a.m. We called him several times but were useless,” Allua said. “(W)e realized he was killed in the second airstrike.” Allua added that Abdullah’s body had been found with his camera burned.
Sterk TV’s Jarada was wounded in the northern Syrian city of Kobani, the reporter told CPJ by phone. Around 9 a.m. on November 20, the reporter went with two other journalists to cover the bombing of a hospital when another round of bombs hit the hospital. “I was injured in the head,” Jarada said, adding that he was hit by debris and his journalist colleagues took him to another hospital. “I am feeling good now,” Jarada said.
Sterk TV, which is affiliated with the PKK, published video of the airstrike on the hospital and Jarada being taken to another hospital.
In a statement, the Kurdish-led de facto regional government in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, condemned the killing and injuring of the two journalists, saying it considered the airstrikes “the twelfth violation against journalists in North and East Syria by Turkey.”
CPJ contacted Haval Jwan, co-chair of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria’s information department, for comment via WhatsApp but didn’t get any responses.
Editor’s note: The fifth paragraph of this report has been updated to correct the name of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
Published November 1, 2022
The vast majority of killers of journalists continue to get away with murder, according to CPJ’s 2022 Global Impunity Index. In nearly 80% of the 263 cases of journalists murdered in retaliation for their work globally over the past decade, the perpetrators have faced no punishment.
Somalia remains the worst offender on the index for the eighth straight year. Syria, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, respectively, round out the top five countries on the index, which covers the period September 1, 2012, to August 31, 2022. Each of these countries has featured on CPJ’s index multiple times, with their history of conflict, political instability, and weak rule of law underscoring the entrenched nature of impunity and making it unlikely that authorities will ever devote resources to seeking justice for the journalists.
Myanmar makes its first appearance on the index in 2022, its number eight ranking marking another grim milestone after joining the ranks of the world’s worst jailers of journalists in CPJ’s December 1, 2021, prison census. In the wake of the democracy-suspending coup in February 2021, Myanmar’s military junta has jailed dozens of journalists and used sweeping anti-state and false news laws to suppress independent reporting. It also has murdered at least three journalists, including two—Aye Kyaw and Soe Naing—who photographed protests against the regime and later were arrested and killed in custody.
But even in less volatile countries with democratically elected governments, authorities show little political will for prosecuting journalists’ killers or curbing violence against the press. Rather, leaders, such as Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, regularly launch verbal attacks on the media even as reporters face constant threats for their vital reporting on crime, corruption, and environmental issues.
Mexico is one of the most egregious cases. CPJ has documented 28 unsolved journalist murders there in the past 10 years—the most of any country on the index and the Western Hemisphere’s most dangerous for journalists. It ranks sixth on CPJ’s index, in part because the ratings are calculated based on the country’s population size. Further, the complex web of generalized violence in Mexico often makes it difficult to say with certainty whether a journalist’s murder is work-related, meaning deaths with an undetermined motive are not factored into calculations for a country’s placement on CPJ’s index.
At least 13 journalists were killed in Mexico in the first nine months of 2022, the highest number CPJ has ever documented in that country in a single year. At least three of those journalists were murdered in direct retaliation for their reporting on crime and political corruption, and had received threats prior to their deaths. CPJ is investigating the motive in the 10 other killings to determine if they were work-related.
Mexican authorities earlier this year flaunted the high number of suspects arrested in killings of journalists, with presidential spokesperson Jesús Ramírez Cuevas noting in March that 16 people had been detained in connection with the killings of six journalists thus far in 2022. Following recent key convictions in the high-profile 2017 murder of Javier Valdez Cárdenas, authorities also have intensified their efforts to extradite from U.S. custody the alleged mastermind, Dámaso López Serrano, a former high-ranking member of an organized crime group in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa. Overall, however, the higher arrest rate has not yet led to convictions. In addition, some of those arrested—such as suspects in the 2021 murder of journalist Jacinto Romero Flores—have since been released due to lack of evidence.
In Brazil—which ranked ninth on the index—several events in 2022 drove home the persistent risks for reporters in the country. In June, British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous issues expert Bruno Pereira were murdered in the Amazon by people whom police suspect have ties to illegal fishing in the region. Their high-profile murders spotlighted the dangers faced by journalists covering the Amazon and the environmental beat in general. Earlier, in February, the murder of community journalist Givanildo Oliveira by alleged members of the criminal organization known as the Red Command raised concerns about the increasing risks faced by reporters in Brazil’s favelas and marginalized communities.
Meanwhile, the family of Brazilian sports journalist Valério Luiz de Oliveira, who was murdered in 2012 in retaliation for his reporting on a prominent football club, faced another setback in their pursuit of justice as the scheduled 2022 trial dates for his alleged killers were delayed repeatedly. His son, lawyer Valério Luiz de Oliveira Filho, spoke to CPJ about his decade-long fight to ensure that his father’s killers faced justice, which he described as “a never-ending nightmare.”
In the Philippines—which ranked seventh on the index—the election of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. brought hope of a shift away from outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign of intimidation and harassment of the press. However, the murders of two radio commentators—Percival Mabasa, a vocal critic of Duterte and Marcos Jr., and Renato Blanco, who reported on local politics and corruption—since Marcos Jr. took office in late June raised fears that the culture of violence and impunity will endure.
Pakistan and India were ranked 10th and 11th on the index, respectively. Both have appeared on the index every year since CPJ first started compiling it in 2008, demonstrating the persistent nature of impunity and violence against the press in these countries.
During the current 10-year index period, from September 1, 2012, to August 31, 2022, CPJ found that 263 journalists were murdered in retaliation for their work worldwide. In 206 of those cases, or 78%, CPJ recorded complete impunity, meaning no one has been convicted in connection with the crime. For the previous index period (September 1, 2011, to August 31, 2021), CPJ found that 81% of journalist murders were unsolved.
This edition of the index overlaps with the same time period as the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, a mechanism launched in 2012 to develop programs to protect journalists and combat impunity in cases of anti-press violence. The plan’s measures include establishing a coordinated interagency mechanism to handle issues related to the safety of journalists, as well as assisting countries to develop legislation and mechanisms favorable to freedom of expression and information, and supporting their efforts to implement existing international rules and principles. Its implementation began in early 2013, yet the index shows that the challenge of impunity remains overwhelming.
CPJ and partner organizations have joined forces in several recent initiatives to combat impunity around the world. One, the “A Safer World For The Truth” project, investigates cold cases of murdered journalists, uncovering new information and advocating for domestic criminal proceedings to be reopened. Earlier this year, at the project’s People’s Tribunal in The Hague, witnesses gave testimony on the 2009 murder of Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, and presented an abundance of evidence pointing to the culpability in the killing of the Ministry of Defense—led at the time by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned as the country’s president in July.
Russia and Bangladesh dropped off this year for the first time since CPJ started the index in 2008 because those countries had three and four unsolved murders in the index period, respectively, below the cutoff of five required for inclusion in the report. But this does not mean that the press freedom or journalist safety environment has improved in these countries. Bangladesh continues to jail journalists under the Digital Security Act, and one—Mushtaq Ahmed—died in jail under unclear circumstances in 2021, after allegedly suffering physical abuse in police custody. Ahmed’s co-accused, cartoonist Kabir Kishore, told CPJ that he was tortured in custody.
Russia has long ranked among the worst countries in the world for journalist murders, with reporters covering beats such as official corruption and human rights violations routinely targeted for their work. Since Vladimir Putin assumed power in late 1999, at least 25 journalists have been murdered in direct retaliation for their work. However, in recent years, targeted killings of journalists have declined as the space for independent reporting has narrowed. That space has almost completely closed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, with most of the remaining outlets shutting down under legal and regulatory pressure and thousands of journalists fleeing the country amid a crackdown that has been disastrous for the press in Russia.
Novaya Gazeta was once one of Russia’s leading investigative outlets, and at least six of its journalists and contributors were killed in connection with their brave reporting since 2000. However, in 2022, the outlet, like hundreds of others, can no longer meaningfully operate in Russia due to the complex threats noted above. As Nobel Prize laureate and Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov said in September, “In Russia, the genocide of media has come to its conclusion. Russian citizens are left alone in the face of government propaganda.”
Index rank | Country | Unsolved murders | Population (in millions)* | Years on index |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Somalia | 19 | 16.4 | 15 |
2 | Syria | 16 | 18.3 | 9 |
3 | South Sudan | 5 | 11.4 | 8 |
4 | Afghanistan | 17 | 39.8 | 14 |
5 | Iraq | 17 | 41.2 | 15 |
6 | Mexico | 28 | 130.3 | 15 |
7 | Philippines | 14 | 111 | 15 |
8 | Myanmar | 5 | 54.8 | 1 |
9 | Brazil | 13 | 214 | 13 |
10 | Pakistan | 9 | 225.2 | 15 |
11 | India | 20 | 1393.4 | 15 |
CPJ’s Global Impunity Index calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population. For this index, CPJ examined journalist murders that occurred between September 1, 2012, and August 31, 2022, and remain unsolved. Only those nations with five or more unsolved cases are included on the index. CPJ defines murder as the targeted killing of a journalist, whether premeditated or spontaneous, in direct reprisal for the journalist’s work. This index does not include cases of journalists killed in combat or while on dangerous assignments, such as coverage of protests that turn violent. Cases are considered unsolved when no convictions have been obtained, even if suspects have been identified and are in custody. Cases in which some but not all suspects have been convicted are classified as partial impunity. Cases in which the suspected perpetrators were killed during apprehension also are categorized as partial impunity. The index only tallies murders that have been carried out with complete impunity. It does not include those for which partial justice has been achieved. Population data from the World Bank’s 2021 World Development Indicators, viewed in September 2022, were used in calculating each country’s rating.
Jennifer Dunham is CPJ’s deputy editorial director. Prior to joining CPJ, she was research director for Freedom House’s Freedom in the World and Freedom of the Press reports.
]]>At about noon on Tuesday, August 2, forces affiliated with the Democratic Union Party, the political party in power in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, detained Ferman, a reporter for Rudaw TV, in the city of Qamishli according to a report by his employer and the journalist’s sister, Hamalin Ferman, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.
Hamalin Ferman told CPJ that authorities had not disclosed where the journalist was being held or the reason for his arrest.
“Authorities in northern Syria must immediately release journalist Barzan Ferman, or disclose his location and the reason for his arrest,” said CPJ Senior Researcher Yeganeh Rezaian. “The Democratic Union Party must halt its censorship efforts against the Rudaw network and allow the broadcaster to work freely and safely.”
Hamalin Ferman told CPJ that her brother was at Rudaw’s office in Qamishli when three masked security officers, one of whom carried a gun, detained him and took him away in a white van. She said the journalist’s family asked local officials and security forces about his status but had not received any responses.
When CPJ contacted Abdullah Sa’dun, a spokesperson of Asayish intelligence agency, the region’s main law enforcement body, via messaging app, he said that he had already spoken with the journalist’s family and would not comment further.
On February 5, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria announced that it was suspending the Rudaw Media Network’s license and the licenses of its employees, claiming the network spread “hate and misinformation.” Ferman had continued working since that suspension, and was detained while helping two colleagues clean and arrange the shuttered office, his sister said.
Hamalin Ferman told CPJ that the journalist’s family was not aware of any threats against the journalist, but added, “maybe he kept it secret.”
Rudaw is affiliated with the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in northern Iraq, and its main office is based in the Iraqi Kurdish capital city of Erbil; it is funded by Nechrivan Barzani, the deputy president of the KDP and the president of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, according to CPJ research.
]]>On Saturday, February 19, forces affiliated with the Democratic Party Union, the political party in power in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria’s regional government, arrested Sofi and Abdo at their homes in Al-Hasaka governorate, according to multiple reports by their employer, ARK TV.
Sofi works as a correspondent for ARK TV’s parent company the ARK Media Foundation, and Abdo works as a correspondent for ARK TV and Radio Rêbaz, according to those reports. ARK TV and Radio Rêbaz both are Iraqi-based broadcasters affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Syria opposition party.
Authorities have not disclosed where the journalists are being held or the reasons for their arrests, according to those reports and KDP-S media director Khalid Ali, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.
Security forces previously detained ARK TV correspondent Sabri Fakhri and Yeketi Media reporter Bawar Malla Ahmad on February 5, as CPJ documented at the time. According to a Facebook post by his father, Ahmed was released on February 9. CPJ was unable to determine Fakhri’s status.
“Authorities in northern Syria must release journalists Ahmed Sofi and Dara Abdo immediately, as well as all other journalists being held for their work,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “The Democratic Party Union must allow the press to work freely, and ensure that political differences do not result in the harassment and detention of journalists and their families.”
Ali told CPJ that masked uniformed men raided Abdo’s home in the city of Al-Hasaka, and another group raided Sofi’s home in the village of Bana Qasr. The security forces arrested Abdo at his home, but Sofi was not at the scene, so they detained his son, which prompted Sofi to surrender himself in exchange for his son’s release, according to those ARK TV reports.
Ali referred to their detentions as “kidnapping,” saying he was not aware of any court order calling for the journalists’ arrests.
When CPJ called Kanaan Barakat, the co-chair of the Jazira region Interior Ministry, which covers Al-Hasaka governorate, he said that ARK TV and Radio Rêbaz both “have no license and can’t work in our region.”
He also accused both outlets of publishing “misinformation” and trying to “stir up discord and temptation.”
When CPJ called Riyad Yousif, co-chair of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria’s Information Department, he said that he did not have any information on the journalists’ arrests “because those media outlets and their staff are not registered in our department.”
Ali told CPJ that he believed “authorities want to silence every different and free voice,” and said that the reporters were only trying to cover the realities of life in the region, “which are deteriorating in terms of freedom of speech and media.”
]]>In the early morning of February 6, Waqaf posted a video to his Facebook account saying that he had gone into hiding after heavily armed security forces arrived at his home in the western city of Tartus and tried to arrest him.
Waqaf, who said in the video that he worked for the state-owned newspaper Al-Wahda, had published a post on his Facebook page on February 4 criticizing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“Syrian authorities have effectively silenced any independent journalist in areas under their control, and yet that doesn’t stop them from trying to stamp out even the slightest hint of criticism,” said Senior Middle East and North Africa Researcher Justin Shilad. “The Syrian government must stop trying to arrest journalist Kenan Waqaf and should release all imprisoned members of the press without delay.”
In his February 4 post, Waqaf criticized Assad for hosting artists at a reception while not responding to issues including long lines for those trying to access government services and protests and roadblocks in the southern Syrian city of Sweida.
On his Facebook page, where he has about 8,600 followers, Waqaf frequently posts reporting on corruption and the deterioration in living standards in government-controlled areas of the country.
The Syria-focused online news outlet Enab Baladi reported that Waqaf was previously arrested in September 2020 and March 2021 after sharing news on Facebook about government corruption and the kidnapping of a government official’s son.
In an interview with CPJ last month, exiled Syrian journalist Amer Matar said that detainees face beatings, torture, and other brutal treatment in Syrian government jails.
CPJ emailed the Syrian Ministry of Interior for comment, but did not immediately receive any response.
]]>On Saturday, February 5, soldiers affiliated with the Democratic Party Union, the political party in power in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria’s regional government, detained both journalists at their homes in the city of Qamishli, according to news reports. Authorities have not disclosed their locations or any charges against them, those reports said.
“Authorities in northern Syria must release journalists Sabri Fakhri and Bawar Malla Ahmad immediately, or at the very least disclose their locations and the reasons for their arrests,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “The Democratic Party Union must allow the press to work freely, and ensure that political differences do not result in the harassment and detention of journalists.”
Those reports did not identify which specific Democratic Party Union-affiliated group was responsible for the arrests.
Fakhri works as a correspondent for ARK TV, an Iraqi-based broadcaster funded by the Kurdistan Democratic Party opposition party, which covers Syrian and international news; he is also a member of the KDP’s Regional Committee, a local branch of the party, according to those reports.
Ahmad is a reporter at Yeketi Media, the official news website of the KDP-affiliated Kurdistan Yekiti Party, those reports said.
Tensions have recently worsened between the Democratic Party Union and the Kurdistan Democratic Party in northern Syria, and earlier in February authorities suspended the KDP-affiliated broadcaster Rudaw TV, according to news reports and CPJ reporting.
CPJ repeatedly called Badi Ahmed, a spokesperson for the Asayish security forces, and Kharib Heso, co-chair of the Movement for a Democratic Society political coalition dominated by the Democratic Union Party, for comment, but no one answered.
[Editors’ note: This article has been changed in its fifth and sixth paragraphs to correct mischaracterizations of ARK TV and Yeketi Media.]
]]>On February 2, Asayish security forces harassed and discouraged the crew from covering a public funeral of 12 members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who were killed in a fight to repel an ISIS assault on January 15, in the northeastern city of Qamishli, in the Rojava region, an autonomous region in northeastern Syria, according to a report by Rudaw.
After the funeral, one crew member was harassed by Asayish security forces, and two other crew members were abducted and beaten by an unknown group, according to the Rudaw report.
On February 5, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria—the regional government—announced that it was suspending Rudaw Media Network’s license to operate in northeastern Syria (Rojava), claiming the network spreads “hate and misinformation,” Rudaw reported. The administration also withdrew the licenses of all Rudaw employees, according to the report. Rudaw issued a statement on February 6 condemning the decision.
“Authorities in Northern Syria must halt their censorship efforts against the Rudaw network and investigate thoroughly assaults against its staff,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “Journalists should be allowed to cover the region independently without retribution, no matter how the Asayish forces feel about it.”
On the afternoon of February 2, a Rudaw crew consisting of reporter Viviyan Fatah, cameraman Issa Hassan, and driver Abdullah Majdal left to cover the funerals in a vehicle with the Rudaw logo, according to a journalist familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, as they have not been authorized to speak publicly. Hassan, Fatah, and Majdal declined to speak to CPJ, as they have not been authorized by their outlet to do so.
At the funeral, an unidentified armed group, seemingly awaiting the crew’s arrival, began harassing them and discouraging their coverage, however the crew was able to finish their report, according to the journalist familiar with the case.
After the funeral, the cameraman and driver were collecting their equipment when five people, armed and wearing black military uniforms, approached the two and identified themselves as Asayish forces, according to Rudaw spokesperson Rebaz Ali, who spoke to CPJ by email. The group ordered the two journalists into their car and drove in front and behind the two, guiding them into a desert area in the city suburbs.
After they stopped, the group ordered Hassan and Majdal out of their car, blindfolded them, and proceeded to beat them with batons and threaten them if they continued working for Rudaw, according to the outlet’s report. After a half hour, the two men were released to their own car. CPJ was unable to confirm if the journalists reported the incident to police, received medical treatment, and what their injuries, if any, were.
The group also confiscated the crew’s camera, live stream equipment, and Fatah’s purse, which included several personal and media identification cards, according to the Rudaw’s report. As of Tuesday, February 8, none of the items had been returned to the journalists or their news outlet, according to Ali.
As Fatah was leaving the funeral, the journalist was approached by six female members of Qamishli’s local Asayish security forces who threatened to beat her if she continued working for Rudaw and accused her of working for “the enemies,” referencing the Turkish government, according to a person familiar with the case.
Also in attendance was Avin Yousif, co-chair of Free Media Union at the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, the Syrian Journalists’ syndicate, who witnessed the incident and told CPJ by phone that “it is unacceptable to treat journalists like that, as it is against all principles of the free media.”
Yousif joined Fatah after the security forces asked the journalist to go to the Asayish headquarters in the city, Yousif told CPJ. At the headquarters, authorities apologized and said they would work to prevent future similar situations.
“They (Asayish forces) abused and disrespected our staff,” Ali told CPJ, adding that the outlet condemns the attack and has asked Rojava authorities to “protect our staff and respect the freedom of the press.”
The crew has filed a lawsuit at Asayish headquarters, and they were promised that the attackers would be found and their items recovered, according to Rudaw’s report.
Asayish forces have not publicly taken responsibility for the act. CPJ called Badi Ahmed, spokesperson for the Asayish forces in the Rojava region, multiple times for comment but he did not answer.
CPJ called Ciwan Mulla Ibrahim, co-chair of information department in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, for comment about the revoked licenses, but he declined to speak.
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