A UN Security Council meeting on "Protecting Journalists" took place in New York on 13 December 2013. Speaker after speaker hammered home the same essential facts: The vast majority of journalists murdered around the world are local reporters working in their own country, covering human rights, corruption, and politics.
The following is a CPJ Blog post by Joel Simon/CPJ Executive Director:
For the second time this year, the U.N. Security Council took up the issue of protection of journalists. In a discussion today [13 December 2013] sponsored by the French and Guatemalan delegations, and open to NGOs, speaker after speaker and country after country hammered home the same essential facts: The vast majority of journalists murdered around the world are local reporters working in their own country, covering human rights, corruption, conflict and politics. In nine out of ten of these murders, no one is ever prosecuted.
It is extremely encouraging that the issue of impunity now features so prominently on the U.N. agenda and that there is such a clear consensus about the gravity of the problem. Many member states made similar interventions at the first Security Council debate on the topic, held in July. Last month, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution declaring November 2 the International Day to End Impunity in crimes against journalists. The resolution is expected to be formally ratified next week.
Read the full story on CPJ’s site.