Israel, Haiti top CPJ list of states where journalist murders go unpunished

Committee to Protect Journalists says globally no one is held to account in 80 percent of cases where journalists are targeted.

Israel is the world’s second-worst offender after Haiti in letting the murder of journalists go unpunished, according to a new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

According to the CPJ’s 2024 Global Impunity Index, released on Wednesday, Somalia, Syria and South Sudan round up the list of the top five countries allowing journalists’ killers to evade justice.

The CPJ index also noted that globally, nobody is held accountable for 80 percent of cases related to the murder of journalists, and in at least 241 killings there has been evidence that the journalists were directly targeted for their work.

The index – which was launched in 2008 – comprises 13 nations this year and includes both democracies and non-democratic governments.

Haiti, which tops the list, has been challenged by the rise of criminal gangs, who played a role in destabilising the country’s administrative and judicial institutions, resulting in the murders of at least seven journalists remaining unresolved in the country, the index said.

Meanwhile, Israel, which ranks second on the list, has appeared on the index for the first time since its inception.

The CPJ said the country’s “failure to hold anyone to account in the targeted killing of five journalists in Gaza and Lebanon in a year of relentless war”, had resulted in its ranking on the index.

While the press freedom NGO is investigating the killings of at least 10 journalists, the CPJ said the number of murdered journalists might still be higher, considering the scale of Israel’s war in Gaza and Lebanon.

“What’s clear from our index is that Israel is not committed