Pakistan ranks 9th in CPJ's list of nations where killers of journalists roam free

Pakistan is among the top 10 nations in the world in terms of the total number of unsolved murders of journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has ranked Pakistan 9th on this year’s Global Impunity Index. Notably, the country has been a mainstay on the index since its inception back in 2008. Somalia remains the world’s worst country in terms of unsolved killings of journalists. 

The Global Impunity Index published by CPJ showed rare changes from last year with Syria, Iraq and South Sudan in the same order. The said nations follow Somalia to occupy the worst four spots on the list amid conflicts, political crisis and comparatively weak judicial systems that perpetuate a chain of violence against journalists, news agency ANI reported. 

The latest data covered the period from 1 September 2011 to 31 August 2021 and did not include the escalating violence against media personnel in war-ravaged Afghanistan after the country fell to the Taliban. The South Asian country was still ranked fifth, similar to the previous two years.

CPJ stated, “Globally in 2020, at least 22 journalists were singled out for murder in retaliation for their work, more than double the total for 2019. For 2021, the number of murders is tracking closely to last year’s, but political volatility in Afghanistan and other high-risk nations makes the final 2021 total difficult to predict.”

“The year 2021 also saw sentencings or positive developments in two other high-profile murder cases, involving countries not ranked on the index,” CPJ added while noting the turn of events in Malta involving businessman Yorgen Fenech who was indicted in August for his alleged role in the 2017 murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

What is the Global Impunity Index?

CPJ’s Global Impunity Index calculates the number of unsolved murders of journalists as a percentage of each nation’s population. For the same, the body examined the murders that occurred between September 2011 and August 2021 but remained unsolved. However, only those nations are included in the index which registered five or more unsolved cases. CPJ added that it “defines murder as a deliberate killing of a specific journalist in retaliation for the victim’s work.”

“This index does not include cases of journalists killed in combat or while on dangerous assignments, such as coverage of protests that turn violent. Cases are considered unsolved when no convictions have been obtained, even if suspects have been identified and are in custody,” CPJ added.

(Image: PTI)