A total of 1,700 journalists worldwide were killed between 2006 and 2024, a 38 percent rise in journalist killings since the previous report, the UNESCO report has reveled.
"However, about 85 per cent of these cases never reached the courts," the report said which was published by the UN body on marking the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on Saturday (November 2).
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, he said in his 2024 message for the Day.
This year, the day also marks the release of UNESCO's biannual Director-General's Report on the Safety of Journalists, showing a 38 percent rise in journalist killings since the previous report.
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."
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.
One year has passed since the events of October 7th, 2023, when Palestinian militants attacked Israel, followed by a devastating Israeli response in Gaza.
Since then, access to information has been severely curtailed. Journalists have been killed, newsrooms destroyed, foreign press blocked and communications cut. Israeli forces, as the occupying power, have systematically dismantled Palestinian media infrastructure. Silencing voices through restrictions, threats, targeted killings and censorship.
In the past 380 days, over 130 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. These were voices reporting on possible war crimes, silenced before their stories could be fully told.
Journalists in Gaza continue to report on the humanitarian crisis, often at great personal risk, providing the world with an accurate picture of the unfolding tragedy. We honour their courage and recognize that their loss silences their stories and severely limits the public's access to the truth.
