Without consequence

Without consequence

JOURNALISTS today face ever more sophisticated threats, while those who target them continue to walk free. From drone attacks to online harassment and legal intimidation, the methods of silencing reporters are multiplying, with little fear of punishment. This year’s International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, observed today, carries the theme ‘Threats Evolve. Impunity Endures’. According to Unesco, 189 journalists were killed in 2024 and 2025, most of them in conflict zones. Yet justice remains elusive in the vast majority of cases. The global impunity rate has risen to 86pc, the first increase since Unesco began measuring it in 2012. This failure to punish those responsible sends a dangerous message: journalists can be attacked or killed without fear of consequence. Gaza shows what happens when those responsible are not held to account. The Committee to Protect Journalists recorded 129 journalists killed worldwide in 2025, with Israel responsible for two-thirds of the deaths. In August that year, Israeli strikes on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital killed 22 people, including five journalists. An AP investigation published a year later found that nobody had been held accountable. For Palestinian journalists, who have been reporting a war largely closed to foreign media, the dangers are especially severe. Their deaths leave the outside world with fewer people able to document what is happening. Similarly, in Sudan and Ukraine, journalists risk their lives exposing the horrors of war, while those who target them often escape justice. Without independent investigations and punishment for those found responsible, promises to protect journalists will remain empty. Pakistan’s record is also deeply troubling. Freedom Network’s latest report documents threats and assaults against journalists, along with 45 cases of legal action or threatened prosecution. The growing use of Peca against journalists investigating official wrongdoing is particularly worrying. Repeated summonses, seized devices and costly court battles are enough to silence a reporter even without a conviction. The human cost of this failure is evident in the case of journalist Mudassar Mahmood Naru. Eight years after his disappearance, his son is growing up without a father and his family is still waiting for answers. The laws meant to protect journalists offer little comfort when the bodies responsible for enforcing them fail to act. In smaller towns, where reporters have fewer resources, intimidation often goes unreported. The state must ensure that attacks are properly investigated, protection bodies function and cybercrime laws are not used to punish legitimate reporting. A country where journalists fear telling the truth more than wrongdoers fear being exposed has its priorities wrong. Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2026