Click to link related article:http://fightimpunity.org/en/fightimpunity-defend-your-right-to-information/
The cases include those of Mexican journalist María Esther Aguilar Casimbe, who disappeared aged 33 in November 2009 while covering crime and police matters; Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, found dead in May 2011 while investigating links between Al-Qaeda and the Pakistani army; and French journalist Guy-André Kieffer, who went missing in Côte d’Ivoire in 2004 while researching shady practices in the production and export of cocoa.
Reporters Without Borders is launching
#Fight Impunity, an international campaign in English, Spanish and French for
the first “International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists” on
2 November.
Its aim is to put pressure on governments
to bring those responsible for crimes of violence against journalists to
justice.
Around 800 journalists have been killed in
connection with their work in the past decade. More than 90 percent of crimes
against journalists are never solved and therefore never punished. This level
of impunity just encourages those who commit these crimes.
Using the examples of ten cases of impunity
for torture, disappearances and murders of journalists, the campaign highlights
the failings of police and judicial systems around the world.
The cases include those of Mexican journalist María Esther Aguilar Casimbe, who disappeared aged 33 in November 2009 while covering crime and police matters; Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, found dead in May 2011 while investigating links between Al-Qaeda and the Pakistani army; and French journalist Guy-André Kieffer, who went missing in Côte d’Ivoire in 2004 while researching shady practices in the production and export of cocoa.
The resources deployed by the relevant authorities
to solve these cases, and many others, were either non-existent or hopelessly
inadequate.
The campaign is using a website,
http://fightimpunity.org/, and a hashtag, #FightImpunity. Because crimes
against journalists concern everyone, the website offers Internet users the
possibility of taking personal action by sending an email or tweet to the heads
of state or government of the countries involved.
Using an interactive mechanism, the general
public can send emails with specific details about individual cases to demand
that justice be rendered.
The UN General Assembly designated 2
November as “International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists”
as a tribute to Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, two French journalists
working for Radio France
Internationale who were murdered in Mali on 2 November 2012.
Co-sponsored by some 50 countries including
France and adopted by the human rights committee, the resolution creating this
International Day urges UN member states to “do their utmost to prevent
violence against journalists and media workers,” conduct “speedy and effective”
investigations into all cases of violence against journalists and bring the
perpetrators to justice.
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