UNESCO Condemns Killing of 59 Media Workers in 2020

Jakarta: UNESCO has condemned the killing of 59 media workers in 2020, among them four women. 
 
With 22 killings each, the Latin America and the Caribbean Region and the Asia and the Pacific Region registered the highest number of fatalities in the profession, followed by the Arab States Region with nine, and Africa with six. 
 
Overall, 2020 saw one of the lowest yearly tolls recorded by UNESCO over the past decade, during which 888 journalists and media workers’ paid the ultimate price for informing the public. 

In 2019, UNESCO condemned the killing of 57 journalists, 99 in 2018.
 
"In 2020, we witnessed in a possibly unprecedented way, the relevance of journalism to our democracies and to the protection of human rights. However, the pandemic was also a perfect storm affecting press freedom worldwide," said UNESCO Director-General Audrez Azoulay in a press release on Wednesday. 
 
"At the dawn of a new year, I call on the world to stand up for information as a public good. Protecting journalism is protecting the truth," the UNESCO chief stated.
 
The 2020 UNESCO Director-General’s Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger Impunity provides insight into the patterns of killings of journalists over the past two years (2018-2019). 
 
On average over the past decade, one journalist was killed every four days. 
 
The Report also shows that impunity for crimes against journalists continues to prevail, despite a slight improvement in 2020 (87% compared to 88 % in 2019). 
 
In its issue brief Safety of Journalists Covering Protests, UNESCO identified 125 protests in 65 countries at which journalists were attacked or arrested between 1 January 2015 and 30 June 2020. 
 
Twenty-one of these events took place during the first half of 2020, but the number of incidents has kept rising during the second half of the year.
 
2020 brought to the fore the dangers facing journalists as they report on protests such as Black Lives Matter demonstrations and other movements around the world.
 
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