Everyone has a role in press freedom

By UN News

Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna took a break from the big screen on Thursday to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in his country and beyond, condemning murders of reporters everywhere as “a scandal”.

Speaking to journalists at the UN Office at Geneva ahead of a screening of his new documentary State Of Silence, Mr. Luna insisted that the issue of their safety was everyone’s responsibility.

“I think it's time for us to come out, us citizens, to come out and protect journalism around the world and protect these voices that are crucial for us to experience freedom, to experience democracy and to live in a healthy world,” he said.

“There is no access to truth if there is no free journalism.”

According to UNESCO, the UN Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization that is mandated with keeping track of and promoting journalists’ safety worldwide, in 2022 and 2023, a journalist was killed every four days.

Efforts to encourage governments to do more to protect journalists are also spearheaded by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, which leads the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.

Journalists under attack

A staggering eight in 10 murders of journalists are not investigated around the world, said OHCHR Human Rights Officer Renaud de Villaine, who highlighted a “persistence” of the killing of journalists today. 

“It happens in in conflict situations, like in the Middle East, but also in Ukraine,” he said.

But it can also happen in countries not at war such as Mexico, where journalists investigating corruption, drugs, cartels and gangs like those who feature in the documentary “are specifically targeted”.

Since 2017, there have been 69 recorded murders and 32 documented cases of disappearances of journalists in Mexico, Mr. de Villaine noted, before insisting that the issue belied deeper systemic issues which OHCHR was working hard with the authorities to resolve.

“Journalists are not the only ones targeted…the problem is beyond journalism,” he maintained, noting the recent gruesome murder of city mayor Alejandro Arcos in Guerrero state.

Echoing those concerns, Santiago Maza, Director of State Of Silence, explained simply that “violence pays off” against journalists.

The theme runs through the documentary which tells the stories of courageous investigative reporters from Mexico who have endured violence and threats on their lives which have forced them into hiding, in the pursuit of their work into subjects including illegal logging and the exploitation of vulnerable communities whose rivers have been diverted.

Opportunity for change

“The current situation won’t change by itself,” Mr. Maza insisted.

“The fact that there’s a new president doesn’t mean that there’s going to be an improvement in the situation, but it does provide an opportunity to address this properly and to change the hierarchy of what needs to be addressed by the Government.”

The dangers journalists face today include an increasing trend in many countries to criminalize their activities by using the apparatus of government.

“The judicial system in many countries is used and I would say also weaponized by State actors sometimes, but also by non-state actors to target journalists and media outlets,” said Mr. de Villaine.

“It explains this criminalization of journalists, it explains why there is still a high rate of journalists being detained around the world - more than 300,” he said, citing the NGO Committee to Protect Journalists.

Not just statistics

According to the Reporters Without Borders, Mexico ranks 121st in its World Press Freedom Index and 165th in terms of safety.

A staggering 155 journalists have been killed there since 2000 because of organized crime “that is able to target and hit journalists…systemic corruption, plus also the failure of some institutions”, said Thibaut Bruttin, the NGO’s Director General.

“Journalists are not numbers, they are actual people,” he told journalists in Geneva.

“It’s not one more journalist being killed, it’s another story that’s gone, it’s another life that’s disrupted…Also, journalists don’t die, they’re killed. Somebody is behind that.”

Explaining his reasons for wanting to get involved in the project as its executive producer, Mr. Luna said that over and above the “scandal” of the high number of journalists killed in Mexico, the wider negative impact on society needed to be addressed.

“It’s what that violence generates,” he said. “It’s the amount of young people that today are questioning if pursuing the dream of being a journalist or not, it’s the number of people who are scared of giving an interview today.”

He added: “When you silence a journalist, you’re not just silencing one voice, you’re silencing the voice of thousands of communities that needed that journalist to connect with the outside.”