Gaza saw highest number of journalists, media workers killings than any war in decades: UN chief

Between 2006 and 2024, over 1,700 journalists have been killed around the world, and around 85 per cent of the cases did not make it to court, according to a report by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

UN News reported that the dangers faced by journalists, including risks to their lives, are highlighted each year on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, which falls on Nov.2.

This year, the International Day coincides with the biannual Unesco Director-General's Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, which recorded a 38 percent increase in the number of journalist killings compared to the previous study.

In his 2024 message for the Day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres pointed out that Gaza has seen the highest number of killings of journalists and media workers in any war in decades, and called on governments to take urgent steps to protect journalists, investigate crimes against them, and prosecute perpetrators.

The war in Gaza inevitably dominated the 2024 UN International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East on Friday, an event that has taken place annually for the past three decades, with the aim of enhancing dialogue and understanding between media practitioners and fostering their contributions in support of a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In a statement to the Seminar, read out by UN head of global communications, Melissa Fleming, Guterres noted that journalists in Gaza have been killed "at a level unseen in any conflict in modern times," adding that the ongoing ban preventing international journalists from Gaza "suffocates the truth even further."

Every two years, the awareness-raising campaign for the commemoration of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists coincides with the findings of the Report outlining the current state of global and regional impunity.

Unesco is concerned that impunity damages whole societies by covering up serious human rights abuses, corruption, and crime. Governments, civil society, the media, and everyone concerned to uphold the rule of law are being asked to join in the global efforts to end impunity.

WAM