2nd November was proclaimed by The United Nations General Assembly in 2013 as the ‘International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists’ in General Assembly Resolution A/RES/68/163. Under this resolution Member states have been urged to implement counter measures to end the present culture of impunity.
Commemoration for this years events will be held under the Theme: Protect Journalists, Protect the Truth.
The Date was chosen in commemoration of the assassination of Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont, two French journalists from RFI radio station.
The two Journalists were kidnapped from the town of Kidal in Mali after they had finished interviewing a local political leader.
According to UNESCO:-
• In the past decade, a journalist has been killed on average every FOUR days.
• The year 2019 shows the lowest death toll recorded by UNESCO in the last decade with 57 deaths.
• In 2019, the highest number of fatal attacks occurred in the Latin America and the Caribbean region, representing 40% of the total killings registered worldwide, followed by the Asia and the Pacific region with 26% of killings.
• Most journalists were killed in countries with no armed conflict.
