Pakistan has climbed one spot to twelfth on the Community to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) annual Global Impunity Index - which measures the impunity with which journalists have been killed in a particular country. However, CPJ warned that the downward movement on the index should not be confused with the offenders having improved their bleak records in achieving justice for journalists.
Downward movement on the index is owed primarily to the induction of Israel into the index - which tracks impunity in terms of unsolved murders of journalists as a percentage of the country's population. It does not include countries where there are fewer than five unsolved cases.
With the index released on Wednesday, CPJ noted that Pakistan has appeared on the impunity index for 17 years, i.e. every year since the index began in 2008. Last year, Pakistan was ranked 11th on the index, sandwiched between Brazil in 10th place and India in 12th.
However, this year, it improved to 12th while surrounded by the same countries. However, the downward movement occurred because Israel was included in second place. India similarly moved downward from 12th place last year to 13th place this year. Moreover, there was no change in the number of unsolved murders in the country over the past two years.
CPJ explained that improper evidence collection, limited resources, political interference, and corruption have repeatedly resulted in ineffective investigations and prosecutions for journalist killings.
The committee said it could confirm that at least two Pakistani journalists had been killed in direct retaliation for their work - whereby CPJ records murder of journalists - so far in 2024, and that they are investigating four other possible work-related killings.
CPJ said that globally, a vast majority of journalists' murderers have escaped with complete impunity - around 77%. CPJ said this had improved from the 90% rate recorded a decade ago and slightly better than the 78% CPJ documented in 2023. CPJ said that impunity has become entrenched around the world, with about four out of five killers of journalists consistently going unpunished.
Spike in killings
In a separate report that the CPJ published simultaneously on Wednesday, it said that while hope for justice in the murder of journalists dims across the world, it was especially true in the case of Pakistan, which has remained on the index for all of its 17 years.
Since 1992, CPJ said that at least 39 Pakistani journalists have been murdered in Pakistan directly for their work - this list only includes those whose murders CPJ could irrefutably establish were directly linked to their work.
CPJ said that there has been a spike in killings of journalists in Pakistan this year with six journalists killed in three provinces either directly or are suspected to have been killed in relation to their work. Of these, CPJ said that it could confirm two journalists were killed due to their work.
This made justice seem even more elusive.
Having spoken to 10 journalists in the country on the prevailing atmosphere, the CPJ report said the murders came amid rising political unrest and militancy in the country and surging media censorship.
It added that impunity for murderers of journalists continues, noting that it has been nearly 20 years since Hayatullah Khan was abducted and later murdered in North Waziristan in 2005, but the perpetrators have yet to be apprehended. It is ironic then that this year, Kamran Dawar was killed on May 21 in North Waziristan for his reporting.
Israel's ascension
Israel, which has led for over a year a brutal campaign in Gaza, which has now expanded to Lebanon, Syria and Iran, debuted on the index this year.
The CPJ said that Haiti and Myanmar were added to the index, lastyear, Iand srael had been added. this year Though these are small nations compared to relative giants such as India - where 19 murders remain unsolved with a population of 1.4 billion - they topped the index.
This year's index put Haiti at number one as the country with the worst record of holding murderers of journalists with seven unresolved murders for a country with a population of 11.7 million. However, Israel, where murders of eight journalists for their work remained unsolved per CPJ - Israeli attacks have killed over 100 Palestinian and Lebanese journalists in the past year - was listed as second due to the proportional basis on which CPJ ranks countries.
It further said that Israel was not included on the index last year because its cutoff date for tabulating data ended before the conflict in Gaza began.
Somalia, Syria and South Sudan followed Israel in the top five.
Overall, Mexico had the most unsolved cases, with 21, followed by India at 19, the Philippines and Afghanistan at 18.