PFUJ calls for end to Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists
November 02, 2025: PFUJ urges Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments to end Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists and ensure their safety and press freedom.
JournalismPakistan.com | Published 7 years ago
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The killing of journalists around the world for doing their job is “outrageous” and should not become the “new normal,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
In just over a decade, some 1,010 journalists have been killed for reporting the news, and in nine out of 10 cases, the perpetrators are never brought to justice. In 2018 alone, at least 88 journalists have been killed according to the UN.
Many thousands more have been “attacked, harassed, detained or imprisoned on spurious charges, without due process,” Guterres said in a video message for The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, marked annually on November 2.
Secretary-General Guterres paid tribute to the reporters in the field “who do their jobs every day despite intimidation and threats.” And he called on the international community “to protect journalists and create the conditions they need to do their work.”
To mark the International Day, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is launching an initiative to fuel awareness on the issue of journalists killed on the job. Called “Truth Never Dies,” it encourages people to share stories by and about fallen journalists to keep their legacies alive and to push for investigations into their deaths to be continued.
“The truth never dies. And neither must our commitment to the fundamental right to freedom of expression, the UN chief said, highlighting that when journalists are attacked “societies as a whole pay a price.”
A study on global trends in media published by the UNESCO in 2017 highlights that impunity for crimes against journalists remains the norm, and trends in kidnappings, disappearances, and torture have shown substantial increases since 2012.
The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution in September, calling on the international community to promote strategies that protect journalists and bring perpetrators of violence against the media to justice.
The latest incident against a scribe was the killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi last month. Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Saudis, under intense pressure to explain Khashoggi’s whereabouts, have offered conflicting accounts. They initially said he had left the consulate on October 2, but later admitted that he had been killed in a fight. Agencies/Photo: YouTube
November 02, 2025: PFUJ urges Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments to end Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists and ensure their safety and press freedom.
November 02, 2025: Impunity for crimes against journalists deepens worldwide as Pakistan reports a 60 percent surge in attacks and weak enforcement of safety laws.
November 01, 2025: Pakistan Press Foundation reports 137 attacks on journalists in 2025, highlighting rising threats, legal harassment, and censorship on the International Day to End Impunity.
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October 31, 2025: Police foiled a plot to kill DawnNewsTV journalist Tahir Naseer in Rawalpindi after arresting suspects hired for Rs200,000. Naseer says threats followed his reporting.
October 31, 2025: CPJ calls on Pakistan to bring Imtiaz Mir’s killers to justice after the journalist was allegedly murdered by a banned militant group in Karachi.
October 30, 2025: The PFUJ has condemned a fabricated drug case against journalist Matiullah Jan, calling it an attempt to silence him and urging authorities to quash the charges immediately.
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