Colombia among worst countries for impunity in murders of journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has listed Colombia among the ten worst countries in the world for impunity in cases of violence against journalists. The findings come in the CPJ’s 2018 Global Impunity Index which charts journalist murders around the world and rates of prosecution against the perpetrators.

According to the CPJ, at least 324 journalists have been murdered around the world in the past ten years. In 85 per cent of those cases, nobody has been convicted.

Colombia is ranked eighth on the list, with the majority of the countries ahead of it in states of conflict. The ten worst countries are:

  1. Somalia
  2. Syria
  3. Iraq
  4. South Sudan
  5. Philippines
  6. Afghanistan
  7. Mexico
  8. Colombia
  9. Pakistan
  10. Brazil
  11. Russia
  12. Bangladesh
  13. Nigeria
  14. India

In July, the United Nations, the Organisation of American States, the European Unions and the embassies of several countries issued a joint statement urging the Colombian government to improve security for journalists in the country. Until that point, there had been threats made against at least 124 Colombian journalists in 2018.