Kosovo has the worst record for impunity in the region: nineteen Serbian and Albanian journalists were killed, abducted and disappeared between 1998 and 2005, and those responsible have never faced justice.
This statement was originally published on europeanjournalists.org on 2 November 2024.
On the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (2 November), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) remembers all the journalists in Europe who lost their lives, gave up their safety and their freedom for journalism, and for which justice has still not been served.
Their names are Daphne Caruana Galizia (Malta), Giorgos Karaivaz (Greece), Jan Kuciak (Slovakia), but also Slavko Ćuruvija (Serbia), Martin O’Hagan (Northern Ireland), Hrant Dink (Turkey). In total, the Council of Europe platform for the safety of journalists lists 32 cases of impunity for murder against 51 journalists and media workers in 16 European countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Greece, Kosovo, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
Kosovo is the country with the most cases of impunity in Europe. It will soon be two decades since 19 Serbian and Albanian journalists and media workers were killed, abducted and disappeared between 1998 and 2005, and no one has been brought to justice for these crimes.
In Serbia, the killers of Slavko Ćuruvija, a publisher and editor-in-chief, are still at large. Ćuruvija was shot dead outside his home in Belgrade in 1999 by two masked men. Twenty years later, four former state security agents were sentenced to 100 years in prison for the murder. While a retrial in 2021 upheld the guilty verdicts, in February 2024 the Belgrade Court of Appeal reversed its decision and acquitted the men of the murder charges.
In Northern Ireland, Sunday World journalist and unionist Martin O’Hagan was shot several times from a passing car while walking home, on 28 September 2001. After 23 years, no one has been successfully prosecuted for his murder.
The fight against impunity is crucial for the rule of law, but also essential to strengthen the protection of media professionals. Bringing to justice those responsible for the crimes is a key element in preventing future murders and attacks.
EFJ President Maja Sever said: “Today our thoughts are with the relatives of the killed journalists, whose grief is all the greater because justice has not been served. Why are these cases still not resolved? For each and everyone of them, we demand justice, and we will keep denouncing failure to properly investigate them. The lack of political will perpetuates impunity.”
“The murder of a journalist is often preceded by death threats, denigration or physical attacks and must therefore be investigated from the outset. Impunity begins when a complaint is not followed up by action. We don’t want the list of murders committed with impunity to get any longer. We urge the relevant authorities to resolve cases that are still unresolved, some of which have been going on for decades,” added EFJ General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez.
