{"id":178576,"date":"2017-10-31T18:10:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T16:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scm.bz\/rotator\/getting-away-with-murder.html"},"modified":"2017-10-31T18:10:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T16:10:17","slug":"getting-away-with-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scm.bz\/en\/getting-away-with-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Away with Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CPJ’s 2017 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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A vigil in Sliema, Malta, for Daphne Caruana Galizia, a critical blogger killed in a car bombing in October 2017. (AFP\/Matthew Mirabelli)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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By Elisabeth Witchel<\/strong>, CPJ Impunity Campaign Consultant<\/p>\n

Published October 31, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Impunity in the murders of journalists can be an intractable cycle stretching over a decade or more, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 10th annual Global Impunity Index, a ranking of countries where journalists are murdered and their killers go free. Seven countries on this year’s index have been listed every year since the index launched a decade ago–including Somalia, which is the worst country for unsolved murders for the third year in a row.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Impunity thrives in conflict environments, where powerful actors often use violent intimidation to control media coverage, while weak-to-nonexistent law and order increases the likelihood of attacks. Justice for over two dozen journalists murdered in Somalia in the past decade is one casualty of prolonged civil war and an insurgency waged by al-Shabaab extremists.The war in Syria pushed that country into the second worst spot on the index, compared with third last year. Third on this year’s index is Iraq, where journalists are menaced by the militant group Islamic State and state-backed militias, among other groups.Fighting between political factions in South Sudan, number four on the index, is the backdrop behind a 2015 ambush during which five journalists were killed. Threats from violent extremist groups operating beyond the reach of authorities underpin high impunity rates in three other countries on the index: Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria.Afghanistan dropped off the list for the first time since CPJ began calculating the index in 2008. Though security conditions remain volatile and no convictions in journalist murders were achieved, targeted killings of journalists have declined. Instead, larger-scale acts of violence such as a truck bomb attack in downtown Kabul in May that killed 150 people, including\u00a0one journalist<\/a>, are responsible for recent fatalities. Over a dozen journalists have been killed there in the past decade while covering combat, by crossfire, or while covering dangerous assignments. CPJ records only two murders, both unsolved, for the period covered by this index.The Impunity Index, published annually to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on November 2, calculates the number of unsolved murders over a 10-year period as a percentage of each country’s population. For this edition, CPJ analyzed journalist murders in every nation that took place between September 1, 2007 and August 31, 2017. Only those nations with five or more unsolved cases for the period are included on the index-a threshold that 12 countries met this year, compared with 13 last year.\u00a0Read more about CPJ’s methodology.<\/a><\/p>\n