Judiciary is key to end impunity for crimes against journalists, says UNESCO

Exposing corruption in Mexico is one of the deadliest ventures a journalist can pursue. From the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Attention to Crimes Committed against Freedom of Expression in Mexico City, Ricardo Sánchez Pérez Del Pozo joined a panel of experts at a conference on 1 March 2021 hosted by UNESCO and members of the Group of Friends on Safety of Journalists titled, “The role of the judiciary and international cooperation to foster safety of journalists – What works?”. This meeting discussed good practices with regard to fighting impunity of violence against journalists (video recordings of the conference available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic).

During one of the panel discussions, Del Pozo shared his experience and strategies to combat impunity for journalists victim of violence in his country.

In Breach’s case, Del Pozo detailed how analyzing the nature of Breach's work exposed the motive of the attack and identified potential perpetrators. The work of his Special Unit led to the arrest of Juan Carlos Moreno Ochoa in December 2017, the man who co-authored and executed the killing.

Del Pozo has led a Special Unit of 18 prosecutors who investigate issues around freedom of expression at the federal level. One of the challenges for this team has been to strategically select the best cases to prosecute in priority, in order to send a strong message against impunity for these attacks against freedom of expression.

However, violence against journalists in Mexico remains very high with over 103 journalists killed in the last 10 years (2010-2020) and only 11 cases reported as judicially resolved so far. These worrisome statistics show how severe and complex the issue is, even when institutional efforts are being implemented.

Also present at the event were Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and expression, and Baroness Helena Kennedy, the Director of the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute, both of whom expressed deepening concern for the prolong time to prosecute crimes due to inadequate resources and lack of capacity. Jeanette Manning, the Director of the NATGRI Center for International Partnerships and Strategic Collaboration, and representative of the International Association of Prosecutors, also expressed similar capacity building challenges to prosecute these crimes. To address these challenges, UNESCO and the International Association of Prosecutors have developed Guidelines for prosecutors on cases of crimes against journalists. The Guidelines are currently available in English as well as in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish and will soon be available in additional languages.

Panelists Yetnayet Desalegn, a representative from the Judicial Training Institute of Ethiopia, and Horace Adjolohoun, the Principal Legal Officer at the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, strongly echoed the need for more robust trainings of judicial actors, such as judges, prosecutors and lawyers, on freedom of expression and safety of journalists.

In order to mobilize judicial actors on this issue and make them more cognizant of international standards and regional jurisprudence, UNESCO has organized a series of trainings on the ground and online on freedom of expression and safety of journalists. Since 2013, more than 18,000 judicial actors in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East have been trained.

The challenges of obtaining justice for crimes against journalists are especially prevalent when it comes to investigating and prosecuting gender-based crimes against women journalists. Panelists Pauli van Wyk, a South African investigative journalist, and Mithila Farzana, a Bangladeshi editor, shared their experience with online violence, an issue which is endemic to women journalists. A recent UNESCO/ICFJ study, which reached over 900 respondents in 125 countries, has found that 73% of women journalists surveyed had experienced online violence in the course of their work. 

Pedro José Vaca Villareal, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, shed light on the lack of recognition of crimes faced by women journalists, such as online violence and abuse, both in law and in practice. Failure to address and prosecute these gender-based attacks and to recognize them as legitimate safety risks can have dire consequences. Human Rights and Media Law Barrister Caoilfhionn Gallagher brought attention to the case of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who had been a victim of harassment and abuse for decades before her murder in 2017. The panelists called for the strengthening of legal frameworks and the training of members of the judiciary on these issues in order to tackle the problem. 

According to UNESCO’s data, the rate of impunity for cases of killings against journalists remains high with only 13% of cases around the world judicially solved. In rare cases, the perpetrator is brought to justice. One of several good examples of justice being served comes from the case of Pablo Medina Velázquez a journalist from Paraguay.