Monday 3 May 2010

CPJ highlights '10 murder cases - no convictions'


To mark today's World Press Freedom Day, the Committee to Protect Journalists is highlighting 10 cases in which journalists have been killed with impunity.
CPJ is challenging authorities to solve the 10 crimes and send a message that they are committed to ending the culture of impunity in journalist murders.
CPJ says it research shows that each of the10 cases can be solved. In many of the cases, specific suspects have been identified; in others, evidence points clearly to potential culprits.
“What they lack is political will,” said CPJ executive director Joel Simon. “Solving these cases would start to change the culture of impunity around the world, a condition that produces widespread self-censorship and stifles the global dialogue.”
CPJ research shows that nearly 90 percent of journalist murders worldwide go unpunished. The countries named on the list—the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Russia, and Iraq among them—have the world’s worst law enforcement records when it comes to deadly violence against the press.
The 10 Cases to Solve identified by CPJ include the Maguindanao massacre victims, Philippines, 2009; Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Russia, 2006; and the editor who predicted his own murder, Lasantha Wickramatunga, Sri Lanka 2009.
Pic: (Reuters/Romeo Ranoco)



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