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End impunity for crimes against journalists
ON THIS International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists especially we remember fallen colleagues.
Victoria Roshchyna, who died in Russian custody in October 2024
Members of the NUJ have been killed in connection with their journalism: Martin O'Hagan, killed on 28 September 2001 in front of his wife near his home in Lurgan; and Lyra McKee, shot on 18 April 2019 while covering rioting in Derry, Northern Ireland.
A court case against several men charged in connection with Lyra's death is yet to get properly under way. The NUJ has renewed its call for an independent inquiry into Martin's killing.
A horrific number of colleagues have been killed in the past year: most by the state of Israel. The NUJ on 1 November wrote to the country's ambassador to the UK condemned the killing and targeting of journalists in Gaza and accused the Israeli government of being in clear violation of international law. "The deplorable actions of Hamas and their violent action, condemned unequivocally by this union, cannot be used to justify egregious attacks on the media and the extreme measures taken to prevent media workers from exercising their professional duties," wrote Deputy General Secretary Séamus Dooley.
Elsewhere in the world we note the death in Russian detention of Victoria Roshchyna, who a year ago went missing while reporting from occupied east Ukraine. She is reportedly the ninth woman journalist to die in that war.
The European Federation of Journalists observes that "the Council of Europe platform for the safety of journalists lists 32 cases of impunity for murder against 51 journalists and media workers in 16 European countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Greece, Kosovo, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom... "
"We urge the relevant authorities to resolve cases that are still unresolved, some of which have been going on for decades," said EFJ General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez.
4 November 2024 Authorities in Manaus, Brazil announced that they had charged the alleged mastermind of the murders of London Freelance Branch member Dom Phillips alongside Bruno Pereira, a former official with the Indian Affairs department, n June 2022. They had identified nine people as involved in the killing; in September one had charges for the actual murder dropped and two remain due to stand trial for it.
End Impunity for crimes against journalists nuj.org.uk
Killing journalists kills the story end impunity - ifj.org
Crime against journalists: Impunity is not declining in Europe europeanjournalists.org
Israel must stop killing journalists new open letter to sign