Wednesday, November 27, 2013
A UN committee on Tuesday voted to create an international day to
protect journalists as media activists condemned the mounting number of
reporters killed on duty.
The Reporters Without Borders group welcomed the move and said 89
journalists were killed while working in 2012, the highest number in
nearly two decades.
The UN General Assembly's human rights committee voted unanimously to
make November 2 each year the International Day To End Impunity For
Crimes Against Journalists.
November 2 is the day that French radio journalists Ghislaine Dupont
and Claude Verlon were killed by militants in Mali this year.
More than 70 countries co-sponsored a resolution which called on UN
states "to do their utmost to prevent violence against journalists" and
to carry out "impartial, speedy and effective investigations" of attacks
on media workers.
Highlighting the number of journalist killings, Reporters Without
Borders secretary general Christophe Deloire said "another 52
journalists have been killed in connection with their work since the
start of 2013."
Deloire said the journalists' activist group was "outraged" by the
killings of the French reporters in Mali "as we have been by the murders
of fellow journalists in Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, Brazil and other
parts of the world in 2013."
"The safety of journalists is an essential prerequisite for achieving
freedom of expression, democracy, social development and peace,"
Deloire added.