LAHORE: To mark International Day to End Impunity, which is being celebrated for the third year running on November 23, Reporters Without Borders is publishing 10 portraits of journalists and bloggers whose murders have not been solved or have not led to the conviction of their perpetrators and instigators. “Acts of violence against journalists and other news providers are attacks not only on the victims themselves but also on freedom of expression, the right to inform and its corollary and the right to receive information. In the vast majority of cases, physical attacks on journalists and murders of journalists go completely unpunished,” Reporters Without Borders said.
Around 700 journalists have been killed in connection with their work in the past 10 years. In its 2012 annual round-up, Reporters Without Borders condemned last year’s carnage of news providers in which a total of 88 journalists and 47 citizen journalists were killed. “This is devastating. The impunity enjoyed by those responsible for this bloodshed encourages them to continue violating human rights and freedom of information.
And it creates a climate of fear and uncertainty for journalists that fosters self-censorship,” Reporters Without Borders said. The 10 portraits presented by Reporters Without Borders try to put names and faces to these tragic statistics and to give an idea of the scale and form that impunity can take in these murders.
Whether the victims of execution-style killings, car bombs or death under torture, all these journalists and bloggers are now the victims of the same evil, Reporters Without Borders said. “They were targeted for covering corruption or drug trafficking, criticising government officials or intelligence agencies, or denouncing human rights abuses. Some cases have become emblematic, others are less known. Those responsible take many different forms and include governments, armed groups and hired killers.”
