UN panel urges stronger protections for journalists amid rising killings and impunity

Melissa Fleming, lead communications at the United Nations, opened a panel at the SDG Media Zone on the need to protect press freedom, saying independent journalism is essential for accurate public information and noting a spike in risks to reporters worldwide.

"In 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists found that a record number of reporters were killed," Fleming said, adding that press freedom is ‘‘one of the most pressing challenges facing our global community today.’’ She pointed to a 2022 Human Rights Council resolution and the UN Plan of Action on the safety of journalists as foundations for action.

Biasan Abu, a United Nations correspondent for Al Jazeera, described losing colleagues in the Gaza conflict and urged an end to impunity: "The impunity has to stop," Abu said, citing Al Jazeera's attempt to bring the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh to the International Criminal Court as an example of cases that have not advanced. Abu said many Gaza-based reporters continue to work under hunger and direct threat to tell local stories when international journalists cannot enter.

Jodi Ginsburg, chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists, outlined CPJ's three core activities—documentation, advocacy and direct assistance—and said governments should expand safe-haven and exile support for threatened reporters. "We need to find new mechanisms to both investigate and hold governments to account," she said.

Panelists highlighted the scale of impunity: Fleming cited UN and UNESCO figures and said targeting journalists in conflict is a "grave violation of international law." Ginsburg added that roughly 85% of killings of journalists go unpunished, which she and Fleming framed as a major obstacle to journalist safety worldwide.

Speakers also discussed the broader stressors on journalism, including financial strains on news organizations, online harassment of women reporters and deliberate campaigns by some states to discredit news outlets. Abu and Ginsburg both urged continued public support for independent reporting and concrete government action to protect reporters and their equipment.

The session closed with Fleming reiterating calls for justice, wider implementation of the UN Plan of Action and greater access for international reporters to conflict areas. The panel made no formal demands that were adopted on the record and no vote was taken.