Another horrible year for journalists

Definitely, 2016 will go down in history as one of the horrible years for journalism and its practitioners. The year would be remembered as one that journalists were killed in their numbers while carrying out their professional and legitimate duties. According to Reporters without Borders (RSF), 74 journalists and other media workers were killed worldwide in 2016, the majority –53– of whom died in targeted attacks. According to the organisation Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Mexico and Iraq were countries where media safety and freedom were particularly at risk in 2016. It also stated that 348 journalists are being detained worldwide a rise of 6 per cent since 2015.

Even as many died in war zones, majority of journalists died in supposedly peaceful countries. These figures do not include the many who on a daily basis suffer from non-fatal attacks, including torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, intimidation and harassment in both conflict and non-conflict situations.

The report noted that the high death toll is largely attributable to deliberate violence against journalists and demonstrates the failure of initiatives to protect media practitioners.  More galling in this gory episode is the growing role of non-state groups, often jihadists such as the Islamic State group (ISIL) in perpetrating atrocities against journalists.
Caught between warring parties, journalists are liable to end up as collateral casualties, or even abducted by non-state actors like religious jihadists. Incidentally, non-state groups perpetrate targeted atrocities, while many governments do not comply with their obligations under international law. We are indeed alarmed at the growing number of journalists that are deliberately murdered for no other crime than being purveyors of information to a world wishing to know of events around them.
We are therefore calling on the United Nations Organisation (UNO) and the International Federation of Journalists to hold world governments and de facto authorities accountable for impunity and crimes against journalists. Murder is the highest form of these crimes but all attacks targeting journalists that remain unpunished must be denounced. There can be no press freedom where journalists work in fear, even as it is imperative for governments to promote a safe and enabling environment for journalists to perform their work independently and without undue interference. When attacks on journalists remain unpunished, a very negative message is sent that reporting the “embarrassing truth” or “unwanted opinions” would get ordinary people in trouble.

Journalists have given their lives to cover wars and terrorism around the globe. If they did not go, we would not know.
It bears repeating that the role of a journalist is to act as a mediator between the public and policymakers through recording and distilling information that are then passed for public consumption. The journalist assumes this role because the public is not in a position to deconstruct the growing and complex flurry of information produced in the modern world, and so needs an intermediary for such assignment.
Journalists around the world fight every day for the right to report the news without fear of reprisal. Too often, they pay the ultimate price. We therefore join all other freedom-loving peoples of the world to denounce the acts of impunity against journalists.