UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al An­to­nio Guter­res is call­ing for press free­dom and safe­ty for jour­nal­ists world­wide.

On this In­ter­na­tion­al Day to End Im­puni­ty for Crimes against Jour­nal­ists, the UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al said,  “A free press is fun­da­men­tal to hu­man rights, democ­ra­cy, and the rule of law.” He al­so high­light­ed the alarm­ing rate of jour­nal­ist fa­tal­i­ties, say­ing, “In par­tic­u­lar in Gaza, which has seen the high­est num­ber of killings of jour­nal­ists and me­dia work­ers in any war in decades.”

He not­ed, “World­wide, an es­ti­mat­ed 9 out of 10 jour­nal­ist mur­ders go un­pun­ished,” and warned, “Im­puni­ty breeds fur­ther vi­o­lence. This must change.” He called on gov­ern­ments to “bring these com­mit­ments to life by tak­ing ur­gent steps to pro­tect jour­nal­ists, in­ves­ti­gate crimes against them, and pros­e­cute per­pe­tra­tors – every­where.” 

He urged, “To­geth­er, let’s end the cy­cle of vi­o­lence, up­hold free­dom of ex­pres­sion, and en­sure that jour­nal­ists can car­ry out their es­sen­tial work safe­ly and with­out fear – every­where.”