Dangerous Work

A few days before hundreds of journalists from around the world gathered in Riga, capital of the Baltic nation of Latvia from May 2-6 to commemorate World Press Freedom Day, two of their colleagues in Africa were murdered. A few days later, the body of a year-long missing freelance reporter in Myanmar was found in a shallow-grave. In Indonesia, the 1996 murder of Yogyakarta-based journalist Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin, allegedly by local authorities, has never been resolved. He was killed while doing an investigative report on alleged corruption in the administration of the Bantul regency in Yogyakarta.

From year to year, the safety of journalists remain the main topic of discussion at conferences, as it has been every year since the United Nations launched its Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity in 2012. It is the first systematic global mechanism, designed to involve all relevant stakeholders on the issue of improving safety for journalists and ending impunity. But how effective has this initiative been so far?

May 19, 2015