Combat impunity against crimes to journalists: PEC

Journalist working on his computer. International Career Institute

Geneva, 1 November 2025: Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), the global media safety and rights body, calls for new measures to combat impunity and its devastating effects on the occasion of ‘International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists’, a United Nations-recognized day annually observed on 2 November. Since the beginning of 2025, at least 153 journalists and media workers have been killed around the world, two-thirds in armed conflicts, even though they were clearly identified as ‘press’. The death toll in ten months has never been so high, stated a PEC statement.

PEC urges UN member states to rally behind the idea of establishing an independent international commission, conceived under the backing of the UN secretary-general or the high commissioner for human rights. Such a body would be tasked with investigating serious violations of international humanitarian, criminal, or human rights law committed against journalists, and with delivering recommendations for strengthening national legislation, accountability mechanisms, and redress for victims, thereby facilitating the truth and preventing relapse.

This year so far, 153 media professionals have been killed in 29 countries, where Gaza Strip comes first with 57 killed, and then the war between Ukraine and Russia with 11, followed by Yemen 11, Mexico 10, Sudan 7, India 6, Pakistan 5, Bangladesh 4, Ecuador 4, Iran 4, Philippines 3, and Syria 3. Two journalists were killed in  Afghanistan, Colombia, Honduras, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, Peru, RDC, and the USA. One casualty is reported in Brazil, Guatemala, Haiti, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Turkey, and Zimbabwe.

"Never before have so many journalists been killed without investigations being carried out to identify those responsible and bring them to justice", said Blaise Lempen, president of PEC (pressemblem.ch), adding that the international community must react to this tragedy to stop this violence. When a journalist is killed and the crime goes unpunished, it conveys the message that killing of journalists is acceptable. Allowing killers of journalists to walk free sends a chilling signal that the powerful can silence voices, crush families, erase stories and escape accountability. Families of these journalists are left bereft and powerless. Thus the collective right to know is stolen.

PEC’s south and southeast Asia representative Nava Thakuria, while stating that impunity for crimes against scribes remained a major concern for the media fraternity, informed that India lost journalists Mukesh Chandrakar, Raghavendra Vajpayee, Sahadev Dey, Dharmendra Singh Chauhan, Naresh Kumar  and Rajeev Pratap Singh to assailants till date in 2025. Pakistan followed by its journo-casualties (namely AD Shar, Abdul Latif, Syed Mohammed Shah, Imtiaz Mir and Tufail Rind). Bangladesh witnessed the murder of Assaduzzaman Tuhin, Bibhuranjan Sarkar, Wahed-uz-Zaman Bulu and Khandahar Shah Alam, where as the Philippines saw the elimination of Juan Johny Dayang, Erwin Labitad Segovia and Noel Bellen Samar. Similarly, Abdul Ghafoor Abid and Abdul Zahir Safi lost their lives in Afghanistan and Suresh Rajak in Nepal during this period. – from Nava Thakuria