Nation gets index for gauging impunity in crimes against media
Israel named one of world’s worst offenders, by routinely letting journalists’ murderers go unpunished
Photo: The Friday Times
THE Freedom Network has unveiled Pakistan’s first Media Impunity Index, which measures the progress made in combatting impunity in crimes against journalists.
The index was launched at an event held in connection with the International Day to End Impunity on Nov 2, said a report published by daily ‘Dawn’. It evaluates various aspects, such as legislative action, policy initiatives and the creation of protective mechanisms for journalists.
“While the federal and Sindh governments have made significant progress in passing safety laws for journalists, a critical shortcoming remains: the legislations have failed to establish the functioning safety commissions necessary to implement the laws,” said a press release.
The report said this year there were several cases when various courts — including district courts, high courts and the Supreme Court of Pakistan — came to the rescue of journalists charged with various offences, often by state actors.
Like past years, 2024 saw six media personnel killed, including a YouTuber. Fifty-seven violations were also recorded, with provinces doing little to end impunity for crimes against media organisations and their employees, according to the Freedom Network’s Impunity Report 2024.
The report notes that federal and Sindh provincial laws have been unable to protect journalists. The report said that 11 assassination attempts, including five murders of journalists and a digital media practitioner, occurred between November 2023 and August 2024.
CPJ’s global index
Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has ranked Haiti and Israel as the world’s worst offenders in terms of letting journalists’ murderers go unpunished. This is the first time that Israel has appeared in the CPJ’s Global Impunity Index.
The targeted killing of five journalists in Gaza and Lebanon since the outbreak of war in October 2023 is enough to put the country second in the rankings. Israel’s war on Gaza — and now, Lebanon — has resulted in the highest recorded number of journalists killed in the line of duty in any given year or war.
Over 130 journalists and media workers have been killed amongst the thousands of casualties in Gaza, but CPJ is investigating the possible targeted murders of at least 10 additional journalists.
As the index notes, “given the challenges of documenting the war, the number may be far higher”.