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Statement on the occasion of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists

On the occasion of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, which falls on November 2, the Qatar Press Center calls for conducting fair, independent and comprehensive international investigations into the assassinations that targeted journalists, especially in Palestine, Lebanon, Israel and Syria. The Center reiterates its condemnation of the violations against the press around the world, including arbitrary arrests, intimidation, enforced disappearances, physical attacks, and electronic threats aimed at silencing the voice of the press. The Center calls on the United Nations, human rights organizations and international organizations to condemn the targeting of journalists with killing, arrest and intimidation, and to take all available legal measures to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes, and to take urgent action to hold the officials, instigators and killers accountable before international courts for war crimes against journalists and media professionals. The Center stresses the need for the United Nations to assume its responsibilities towards protecting journalists around the world, by adopting a binding agreement on the safety and independence of journalists and other media workers, and taking adequate measures and procedures to protect their safety and lives, and ensuring that they continue to perform their mission without fear or intimidation, and demanding that the international community hold accountable countries that commit flagrant violations against journalists to put an end to impunity. The Center calls on the international community to pressure governments that arrest journalists and media professionals because of their work, especially Israel, to release them, especially since many of them suffer from dire conditions that deprive them of the most basic rights of prisoners stipulated in international laws and conventions. The United Nations General Assembly declared November 2 of each year as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, in accordance with Resolution 68/163, which urged member states to implement specific measures to confront the culture of impunity. The date was chosen to commemorate the assassination of two French journalists in Mali on 2 November 2013. The commemoration aims to remind the world of the sacrifices made by journalists and to combat impunity for crimes committed intentionally against them. The rate of impunity for the murderers of journalists is 80% worldwide, while justice has been achieved in less than 5% of journalist killings since 1992.