“Media professionals around the world face increasing dangers in their search for the truth, including verbal abuse, legal threats, physical attacks, imprisonment and torture. Some are even killed,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his message marking the day.
Unsolved cases
“Around the world, almost nine out of ten murders of journalists remain unsolved.” He pointed out that Gaza has been “the deadliest place for journalists in any conflict”urging “independent and impartial investigations.”
Guterres warned that impunity “is not only an injustice for the victims and their families: it is an attack on press freedom, an invitation to more violence and a threat to democracy itself.”
He called on all governments to “investigate every case, prosecute every perpetrator and ensure that journalists can do their work freely everywhere.”
Targeting Women Online
UNESCO, the United Nations culture and education agency, which leads global efforts to defend press freedom, is leading this year’s campaign focusing on the growing use of digital technology to attack women journalists.
under the topic GBV Chat: Raising awareness on gender-based violence against female journalists facilitated by AIUNESCO warns that the rise of generative artificial intelligence has amplified the scope and impact of online abuse.
“When an AI-generated deepfake of a journalist goes viral, not only her image is attacked, but also her credibility, security, and voice.”the agency said.
These attacks are part of what experts call Gender violence facilitated by technologya growing form of harassment designed to silence, humiliate and discredit women in the media.
Threatened and attacked
UNESCO’s The Chilling study revealed that 73 percent of female journalists have faced threats online and, as a result, one in four have suffered offline attacks..
More broadly, 58 percent of young women and girls worldwide have experienced harassment on social media platforms, underscoring the magnitude of the problem.
“Digital spaces must be safe for those who gather and report the news,” said the Secretary-General. “When journalists are silenced, we all lose our voices.”
The message from the UN and working journalists is clear: justice for crimes committed against them simply for doing their job should not be negotiable, and digital spaces must be recovered from those who use technology as a weapon to sow fear and hatred.
Learn more about UN efforts here and UNESCO’s global campaign here