Six in seven journalist killings go unpunished, UNESCO report finds
- UNESCO says impunity for journalist killings rose to 86 per cent in 2024-2025, the first increase since 2012.
- The report counts 189 journalists killed in the two years, with 127 of them dying in conflict zones.
- UN chief António Guterres urged governments to investigate, prosecute and protect journalists.
Six out of every seven journalists killed around the world are never avenged in court, according to a new United Nations report that says impunity has risen for the first time in more than a decade.
The UNESCO report, released on Monday to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, put the impunity rate at 86 per cent for 2024-2025. That is up from 85 per cent in the previous two-year period, and the first increase since the agency began measuring in 2012.
The report counted 189 journalists killed in 2024 and 2025, about 20 per cent more than in the previous biennium. Just over two-thirds of them, 127, died in conflict zones.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said journalists keep paying a heavy price for doing their work. "When journalists are targeted and their reporting is extinguished, it makes victims of us all," he said, calling the failure to punish killers a scandal.
Guterres said at least 34 journalists were killed in the past year, and that impunity in conflict zones was close to 100 per cent. He asked governments to investigate attacks, prosecute offenders and deal with online harassment.
Drones and women reporters
UNESCO flagged the growing use of drones as a new danger. Drone strikes killed 50 journalists in the two years, or 40 per cent of all those killed in conflict zones. Fifteen were killed while wearing press vests or riding in vehicles marked "Press".
The State of Palestine recorded the highest number of killings in both years, at 30 and 32. The Arab States accounted for 97 verified cases, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean with 37, Asia-Pacific with 34, Central and Eastern Europe with 14, Africa with 6, and Western Europe and North America with 1.
Women journalists faced particular risk. Thirteen of the 14 women killed in the period died in countries at war. A 2025 study by UN Women and the International Center for Journalists found that 75 per cent of women journalists had suffered online or offline abuse, and more than 40 per cent reported offline violence linked to online attacks.
There was some good news. In countries not at war, impunity has fallen from 94 per cent in 2012 to 77 per cent in 2026, and killings in those countries, 85, are the lowest in 18 years. UNESCO said this shows progress is possible when governments pay for investigations and prosecutions.
For Nigerian reporters, the report is a reminder of the risks of the job, from covering insecurity in the north to online abuse of women in newsrooms.
What happens next
UNESCO is pressing countries to honour UN Security Council Resolution 2222, adopted in 2015, which treats journalists as civilians in conflict. The agency publishes the report every two years to mark the international day.
