Four out of five murders of journalists worldwide between 1992 and 2022 went unpunished, and this project will build a tool to systematically track why and how that impunity persists. The problem is a critical knowledge gap: no comprehensive method exists to map the underlying causes of impunity across different countries, or to understand how civil society groups resist it. Without this, international efforts to end impunity—a priority under Sustainable Development Goal 16—lack the evidence needed for effective policy. The project will develop an "impunity profiler," a replicable framework combining sociology, political science, journalism studies, and computer science. Tested in Mexico, Indonesia, and Serbia, it will produce an open-access data repository and training resource. If successful, this will give researchers, journalists, and advocacy groups a standardised way to document state-based harm and countermeasures. The ultimate impact is better-targeted advocacy and policy interventions that could break the cycle of violence and self-censorship, strengthening accountable governance in countries where critical journalism is under attack.
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This project aims to systematically examine human rights violations against journalists undertaken with impunity. Such violations include attacks on the life and work of journalists (e.g., direct violence; offline and online harassment; gender-based intimidation; and, psychological harm); the weaponization of the law and disinformation to silence critical media; state-led media capture to serve polarising agendas; online surveillance; and, the deliberate generation of public mistrust in journalism. As an indication of the severity of the situation, 80% of all 1448 journalist murders between 1992 and 2022 resulted in impunity, meaning that perpetrators of serious human rights violations are not held accountable (CPJ 2022). Particularly at risk of attacks with impunity are journalists covering critical public interest issues including political and corporate corruption, organised crime, human rights violations and environmental conflicts. This lack of accountability has been shown to engender a climate of fear and self-censorship amongst journalists, sometimes as the sole means of self-protection when states fail to deter or are directly complicit in attacks on journalists. In view of this perpetuated cycle of injustice, ending impunity for crimes against journalists is a priority of the international community in achieving sustainable development globally, including the promotion of peaceful, inclusive and just societies (Sustainable Development Goal 16/16.10). Problematically, critical knowledge gaps currently prevent comprehensive understanding of the underlying causes of impunity and how the phenomenon is manifest across diverse country settings, ultimately preventing effective remedial action and policy intervention. This project seeks to contribute to redressing these gaps by developing a holistic 'impunity profiler' (IP) to enable systematic mapping of civil society actors' (journalistic, legal and civil associations) experiential accounts of impunity, and practices employed to counter impunity. Based on an original conceptual, methodological and interdisciplinary approach (combining sociology, political science, journalism studies and computer science), the IP will support in-depth comparative assessment of impunity and countermeasures used across diverse country settings. It will be tested in three countries (Mexico, Indonesia and Serbia), to: (1) systematically understand the underlying political, civil and cultural causes of the societal problem of impunity for human rights violations against journalists, as an expression of state-based harm and a failure in accountable governance, and, (2) shed light on the consequences of impunity by methodically exploring how civil society communities are affected by and seek to resist impunity. Incorporating computer science methods and open data principles, the IP framework will produce a replicable method and novel data set to be translated into an online open data repository and training resource for researchers, civil society and policy actors to better assess impunity in country contexts. Participatory Action Research (PAR), as a method to incorporate perspectives of beneficiary communities, will be integral to developing an integrated approach to knowledge exchange by establishing a global Community of Practice (CoP), involving civil society, academic and policy communities, as primary collectors, holders and users of data on impunity for violations against journalists. The CoP will ensure uptake and use of the IP amongst beneficiaries and provide the project's impact platform. Impact objectives focus on building capacities, via strengthened methods of academic inquiry and civil society documentation practices, to generate higher quality public intent - or accountability-oriented - data to be utilised to empower local, regional and international advocacy and policy efforts to more effectively redress the problem of impunity for attacks on journalism.
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