The glaring lack of justice for murdered journalists is a major threat to press freedom. More than 30 years after CPJ began documenting these killings, nearly 80 percent of them remain unsolved. CPJ has been tracking the killings and imprisonments of journalists since 1992.

   Two small countries, Haiti and Israel, occupy the top two spots on the index and are now the world’s biggest offenders in letting journalists’ murderers go unpunished, according to CPJ’s index, which measures unsolved murders as a proportion of a country’s population.

   In Haiti, ranked 1, a weak or non-existent justice system, gang violence, poverty, and political instability have contributed to the failure to bring killers to justice. Haiti first joined the index in 2023 (at 3), as criminal gangs took control of large parts of the country after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, plunging the press into an «existential crisis» that forced many to cut staff or close down entirely.

TOP 3 Countries with the Most Impunity for Murders of Journalists :

   1 – Haiti: 7 Unsolved Murders (Population 11.7 million) 2nd Year on the Index;

   2 – Israel & Occupied Palestinian Territory: 8 Unsolved Murders (Population 14.9 million) 1st Year on the Index;

   3 – Somalia: 9 unsolved murders (Population 18.1 million), 17th year on the index.

How CPJ Defines «Murder» and «Impunity»

   Murder: Only cases defined as «murder» are included in the impunity index. CPJ defines «murder» as the killing of a journalist, whether premeditated or spontaneous, when our research enables us to say with reasonable certainty that the individual was killed in direct connection to their work as a journalist.

   In many cases, we are not able to say conclusively that the killing was connected with someone’s work (for example, in countries with high levels of corruption and crime, such as Mexico, or during wars with high levels of general civilian casualties, such as the Israel-Gaza war).

   Impunity: Impunity occurs when individuals or nations are not held responsible in these murders. Full impunity, which our impunity index measures, means no one has been held to account in a journalist’s deliberate murder.