On Sunday, the United Nations (UN) marked the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists by renewing calls for justice and greater protection for media professionals, both offline and online.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cMedia professionals around the globe face mounting perils in their pursuit of truth, including verbal abuse, legal threats, physical attacks, imprisonment, and torture. Some are even killed,\u201d said UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres in his message commemorating the day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He noted that \u201cnearly nine out of ten journalist killings remain unresolved\u201d and highlighted Gaza as \u201cthe deadliest place for journalists in any conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Guterres called for \u201cindependent and impartial investigations\u201d into such attacks, warning that impunity \u201cis not only an injustice to the victims and their families, it is an assault on press freedom, an invitation to further violence, and a threat to democracy itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He urged governments worldwide to \u201cinvestigate every case, prosecute every perpetrator, and ensure that journalists can do their jobs freely everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), which leads global efforts to defend press freedom, has this year turned the spotlight on the growing use of digital technology to harass and silence women journalists.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Under the theme Chat GBV: Raising awareness on AI-facilitated gender-based violence against women journalists, UNESCO warns that the rise of generative artificial intelligence has intensified the reach and harm of online abuse.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen an AI-generated deepfake of a woman journalist goes viral, it\u2019s not just her image that is attacked, it is her credibility, safety, and voice,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A UNESCO study titled The Chilling found that 73% of women journalists have faced online threats, and one in four experienced physical attacks as a result. In addition, 58% of young women and girls globally have reported harassment on social media platforms.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cDigital spaces must be made safe for those who gather and report the news,\u201d said the Secretary-General.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen journalists are silenced, we all lose our voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The UN reiterated that justice for crimes against journalists must be non-negotiable, and efforts must continue to reclaim digital spaces from those who use technology to spread fear and hate.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–UN\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13021,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-14316","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Journalists around the world continue to risk their lives to uncover the truth, yet most crimes committed against them go unpunished. ","published_date":null,"news_description":"Journalists around the world continue to risk their lives to uncover the truth, yet most crimes committed against them go unpunished. ","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19030,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14316\/revisions\/19030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=14316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}