The Campaign
Across the globe, journalists are routinely punished simply for doing their job. The punishment takes many forms. Some face the ultimate sanction, murdered for what they have written. The perpetrators all too often avoid punishment. Others are subjected to harassment disguised as law enforcement, and convicted of crimes such as insulting a nation's reputation or divulging state secrets. As a result, they languish in prison while those who attack their colleagues remain at large.
IPI's Justice Denied Campaign tells the stories of individual journalists who face this injustice. Their stories vary dramatically. What unites them is the inevitable conclusion that justice has not been served.
Goals of the Campaign
While these stories of impunity and imprisonment personify the problem and underscore its universality, they represent opportunities for positive change. Reinvigorated murder investigations can solve cases previously relegated to the bottom of the pile. A review of past convictions and the faulty provisions on which they are based can trigger the release of someone unjustly detained. IPI's Justice Denied Campaign aims to inform the public and the relevant authorities both about the problem and available solutions. We hope you will join our efforts.
IMPUNITY: The violence perpetrated against the journalists comes in varying forms, with an alarming majority killed in assassinations. Some were targeted for being associated with, or speaking out against, the wrong political group. But even those who distanced themselves from politics were not immune to retribution, and were instead silenced simply for asking too many questions. At worst, governments are directly implicated in the attacks. In other cases, they fail to see such attacks as priority cases. Resources are spent elsewhere, and little or no progress is made in their investigations.
IMPRISONMENT: The stories involve journalists caught during broad crackdowns on dissidents, and those singled out for prosecution. In most cases, charges stem from libel and security laws, with the journalists charged with harming the country whose public their reporting was meant to serve. They have been subjected to hurried legal proceedings behind closed doors, drawn out public spectacles, or held secretly without being officially charged. Some are being held in their country's most notorious prisons, without access to proper health care or legal representation, and little or no contact to their families.
What IPI Does
- Ensure continuous visibility by providing the public, the media and key decisionmakers with up-to-date information regarding these cases, including information obtained during fact-finding missions and from liasing with local and international organizations
- Push key decisionmakers - local, regional and international - to act, including by conducting advocacy missions and supporting lawyers seeking to force action by way of available judicial means
- Provide support to the individual journalists and their families
What You Can Do
- Publicize the cases highlighted by the Justice Denied campaign through your own media outlet
- Call for a culture of justice for journalists by demanding an end to impunity and unjust imprisonment
Donate to: IPI Justice Denied Campaign
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