May 02, 2018

Dark days for journalists and society

located:	Slovakia, Afghanistan
editor:	Maria João Morais

It was the deadliest day for Afghan journalists since 2001. This Monday, a double attack killed 26 people in Kabul, including nine journalists, who lost their lives after arriving to report on the previous blast. The attackers left little room for doubt: the bloody attack deliberately targeted journalists.

Sadly, it is only the most recent and tragic episode involving the death of journalists simply because they were doing their job. The cases have been mounting in recent months. In Malta, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who investigated cases of corruption linked to the Panama Papers, was murdered as she left her home near La Valletta by a bomb that destroyed her car.

In Slovakia, investigative reporter Jan Kuciak (who was looking into corruption, fraud and tax evasion cases) and his girlfriend, were found dead in their home in Bratislava.

Worldwide the figures released by Reporters Without Borders are staggering: in the past 15 years, more than 1000 journalists have been murdered, half of them in countries without any armed conflict. At the same time, Freedom House has denounced threats to democracy and journalism in several Western countries.

Because an attack on journalists that are pursuing their work is an attack on society and democracy, this alarming rise in hatred against the media should concern us all. A strong society needs journalists who can carry out their work freely and fearlessly: telling stories as they are, giving a voice to the unheard, whist critically watching over the exercise of power.

Fortunately, there are also important signs of resistance against these attempts to silence reporters. Six months after the murder of the Maltese journalist, the Daphne Project was launched by Forbidden Stories, an association whose mission is to continue the work of journalists facing threats, arrest or death. Platforms like these are critical to ensure that the deaths of those brave journalists were not in vain and that their legacy will go on.