Six out of every seven journalists murdered around the world are killed without their killers ever facing justice. That figure, drawn from UNESCO's latest report, is sobering enough on its own. What makes it harder to sit with is that this level of impunity is now rising, for the first time in over a decade.
The UN's cultural agency tracks these numbers closely, and the trend it is flagging right now is a reversal of what had been slow but real progress. For years, advocates and press freedom organizations pointed to incremental gains in accountability. That progress appears to be stalling, or worse, moving backward.
UNESCO's report also raises a newer concern: drones. As conflicts grow more complex and harder to cover safely, reporters in war zones are increasingly facing danger from above. The use of drones as a threat to journalists is described as an emerging risk, one the industry and international bodies are only beginning to reckon with.
Africa has long felt the weight of press freedom violations acutely, and global reports like this one are a reminder that the safety of journalists is not a distant or abstract issue. When reporters cannot do their work without fear, the stories that hold power accountable simply do not get told.
Originally published by AllAfrica.