UN Prioritizes Journalist Security

Submitted by ub on

Two reports on attacks against the press, presented at the United Nations Human Rights Council, rely a great deal on CPJ research and bring unprecedented international attention to how anti-press violence imperils our collective right to information.

One report, by Christof Heyns, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, focuses on attacks against the press and cites CPJ’s Impunity Index and killed statistics as well as research from its annual publication. The report marks the first time that the office has focused on attacks against journalists and impunity in anti-press violence.

The other report, by Frank La Rue, the U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, highlights journalist killings as one of the greatest threats to free expression. The report cites research from CPJ’s Global Campaign against Impunity and the 2011 report “The silencing crime: Sexual violence against journalists.”

Both reports conclude that although there are adequate international conventions and protections, their implementation falls short, particularly on a state level.

www.cpj.org

http://cpj.org/campaigns/impunity

http://cpj.org/reports/2011/06/silencing-crime-sexual-violence-journali…