On International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, OSCE Representative calls on participating States to step up their investigations

VIENNA, 2 November 2015 – On the occasion of International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today called on OSCE participating States to investigate all attacks on journalists thoroughly and to prosecute those who commit crimes against members of the media.

“If journalists are not safe and free to write and investigate stories, freedom of expression and free media is at risk,” Mijatović said. “To break the cycle of impunity all attacks against journalists must be investigated swiftly and thoroughly; there can be no exception to this very basic rule.”

In December 2013, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution on journalists’ safety and proclaimed 2 November as the International Day to End Impunity. It was the first time the General Assembly adopted a resolution directly addressing the issue.

“Nine out of every 10 murders of journalists are never solved,” Mijatović said. “These numbers alone show that we can never give up and never give in for the fight for journalists’ safety and media freedom.”

Journalists in the OSCE region whose murderers or masterminds behind the murders, are still at large include among others, Slavko Ćuruvija (1999), Georgy Gongadze (2000), Martin O’Hagan (2001), Milan Pantić (2001), Veronika Cherkasova (2004), Duško Jovanović (2004), Paul Klebnikov (2004), Elmar Huseynov (2005), Anna Politkovskaya (2006), Alisher Saipov (2007), Hrant Dink (2007), Natalya Estemirova (2009), Khadzhimurad Kamalov (2011), and  Akhmednabi Akhmednabiyev (2013).

“It is painfully evident that the political will to confront the issue of impunity in the OSCE region is too low and in some cases non-existent,” Mijatović said. “Many participating States need to turn words into deeds and specific action.”

For more on journalists’ safety, download the OSCE Safety of Journalists Guidebook and the leaflet ‘Safety of journalists – An imperative for free media.’

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media observes media developments in all 57 OSCE participating States. She provides early warning on violations of freedom of expression and media freedom and promotes full compliance with OSCE media freedom commitments. Learn more at www.osce.org/fom, Twitter: @OSCE_RFoM and on www.facebook.com/osce.rfom.