UNESCO tracks surge in journalist killings in 2022-23

Worldwide killings of journalists jumped in 2022-23 compared with the previous two years, UN cultural body UNESCO said in a report Saturday, with almost all cases going unpunished.

At 162 deaths, the number of journalists killed while working leaped 38 percent, the report found, calling the increase "alarming".

"In 2022 and 2023, a journalist was killed every four days simply for doing their vital job to pursue truth," UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement.

She urged countries to "do more to ensure that these crimes never go unpunished".

The largest number of killings were in Latin America and the Caribbean, at 61 over the two years, while the least deadly global region for journalists was North America and Western Europe with six killings.

The report also found that a majority of slain journalists were killed in conflict zones in 2023 for the first time since 2017, at 44 deaths or 59 percent of that year's total, reversing a years-long trend of falling conflict deaths.

Among the journalists killed in 2022-23, 14 were women -- nine percent of the total -- while at least five were in the 15-24 age range.

Almost all killings of journalists go unsolved, with 85 percent of cases identified by UNESCO since 2006 still unsolved or abandoned, according to responses individual countries sent the body.

That marked some improvement on the 89-percent non-resolution rate in 2018 and 95 percent in 2012.

But of 75 countries UNESCO contacted for updates on open cases, 17 did not respond at all and nine did no more than acknowledge the request.

Even in the 210 cases where journalists' killings were resolved, the median time this took stood at four years.

"Justice delayed is justice denied," the report authors wrote.

UNESCO holds an annual publicity campaign against impunity for journalists' killings.

This year, it will hold a conference on journalists' safety while reporting on crises in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on 6 November.