Protecting the Right to Life of Journalists: The Need for a Higher Level of Engagement

Abstract

Journalists play a central role in fostering a society based on the open discussion of facts and the pursuit of the truth, as opposed to one based on rumor, prejudice, and the naked exercise of power. As a result, journalists are often literally in the line of fire, and deserve special protection. This article considers the characteristics of deadly attacks on journalists over the last two decades, and examines how the applicable legal and policy frameworks can be used better or improved to provide a higher level of protection. Impunity, often a by-product of the politicized nature of journalistic activities, is seen as the major cause of continuous attacks on journalists. The conclusion is drawn that one of the key elements of a strategy to better protect journalists is to "elevate" the issue on a number of fronts: to move prevention and accountability from the local to the central level within domestic jurisdictions, while simultaneously heightening the level of international engagement with this issue.

Global and Domestic Networks Advancing Prospects for Institutional and Social Change: The Collective Action Response to Violence Against Journalists

“…Scholars point out that no international treaties are specifically dedicated to protecting journalists from physical attacks. Nonetheless, freedom of expression has been an established norm for more than 65 years and is a human right outlined in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Heyns & Srinivasan, 2013). Multilateral networks have exerted pressure on governments using normative appeals based on these international standards.…”

“…Waisbord (2007) also indicates that “state absence facilitates anti-press violence” (p. 115). Others have found that the rate of impunity for killing journalists is correlated with impunity over time, though some cases legitimately lack evidence (Heyns & Srinivasan, 2013). Generally, these contexts are marked by “a lack of political will to prosecute” and perpetrators receive a form of de facto state-sanctioned political cover (p. 312).…”

“…In global work focused on breaking the impunity cycle, as the Committee to Protect Journalists (2014) noted, the majority of murdered journalists were “reporting on corruption, crime, human rights, politics and war, among other issues of vital importance to their societies”; globally, in “90 percent of all these cases there has been total impunity—no arrests, no prosecutions, no convictions” (p. 2). According to the human rights literature, those suspected of committing crimes against journalists often are “from the very institutions and authorities responsible for upholding and enforcing a protective regime” (Heyns & Srinivasan, 2013, p. 311).…”

“…As Figure 4 demonstrates, in the years leading up to the spike in violence after the turn of the millennium, only a handful of initiatives addressed violence against journalists as a human rights issue; the period between 2000 and 2015 saw a sixfold increase in resolutions, declarations, decisions, and implementation plans advanced by organizations such as the UN General Assembly, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNESCO, the UN Office of the Organization of American States, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the UN Security Council, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, among others. Many of the actions are nonbinding in nature, however (Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism, 2011; Heyns & Srinivasan, 2013).…”

El fenómeno de los periodistas ciudadanos en los conflictos armados actuales

“…En definitiva, parece asentada la visión de que los ciudadanos pueden igualarse con los profesionales y gozar de la misma protección cuando afronten los mismos riesgos. En estos casos merecen la misma consideración jurídica, aunque bien es cierto que la dificultad radica precisamente en localizar qué ciudadanos están en peligro precisamente por el hecho de difundir mensajes y cuáles no 40 . Está claro que lo que convierte a una persona en potencial víctima no es el hecho de ser profesional sino la repercusión del material que difunde, lo cual le hace acreedor de una protección que no contempla el vigente Derecho Internacional Humanitario para que puedan continuar con una función que se ha demostrado útil.…”