Nigeria has been ranked 13 out of 14 countries in the 2018 Global Impunity Index by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and their killers go free.
According to CPJ, Nigeria has featured on the ranking for the sixth time because of government’s failure to bring murderers of journalists to justice.
It revealed that the entire impunity index was arrived at by calculating the number of unsolved murders over a 10-year period in line with a percentage of each country’s population..
For this edition, CPJ analysed journalists’ murders in every nation that took place between September 1, 2008 and August 31, 2018.
According to the index, at least 324 journalists have been silenced through murder worldwide in the last decade and in 85 percent of these cases no perpetrators have been convicted also more than three quarters (82 percent) of these cases took place in the 14 countries that CPJ included on the index this year.
Somalia tops the list, in Africa with 25 unsolved murder cases followed by South Sudan (4th) with 5 unsolved murder cases and then Nigeria (13th) 5 unsolved murder cases.
According to daily post, within the period of ranking, Nigeria has had five unresolved murders of journalists. The five cases are:
Bayo Ohu of The Guardian was killed on September 20, 2009, in Lagos;
Enenche Akogwu of Channels TV killed on January 20, 2012 in Kano while covering Boko Haram crisis; Nathan S. Dabak, of The Light Bearer killed on April 24, 2010, in Jos;
Sunday Gyang Bwede also The Light Bearer killed on April 24, 2010, in Jo; and
Zakariya Isa of Nigeria Television Authority murdered on October 22, 2011.
So far, nobody has been brought to justice by the Nigerian authorities in the murder of these journalists who were killed in connection with their job.
Below are the Top 14 Countries on 2018 impunity index
1 Somalia
Unsolved Cases: 25
Population: 14.7 m
Change: Improved
Years on Index: 11
2. Syria
Unsolve Cases: 18
Population: 18.3 m
Change: Worsened
Years on Index: 5
3 Iraq
Unsolved Cases: 25
Population: 38.3 m
Change: Improved
Years on Index: 11
4 South Sudan
Unsolved Cases: 5
Population% 12.6 m
Change: Improved
Years on Index: 4
5 Philippines
Unsolved Cases: 40
Population: 104.9 m
Change: Improved
Years on Index: 11
6 Afghanistan
Unsolved Cases: 11
Population: 35.5 m
Change: Worsened
Years on Index: 10
7 Mexico
Unsolved Cases: 26
Population: 129.2 m
Change: Worsened
Years on Index: 11
8 Colombia
Unsolved Cases: 5
Population: 49.1 m
Change: Improved
Years on Index: 8
9 Pakistan
Unsolved Cases: 18
Population: 197.0 m
Change: Improved
Years on Index: 11
10 Brazil.
Unsolved Cases: 17
Population: 209.3 m
Change: Improved
Years on Index: 9
11 Russia
Unsolved Cases: 8
Population: 144.5 m
Change: Improved
Years on Index: 11
12 Bangladesh
Unsolved Cases: 7
Population: 164.7 m
Change: No change
Years on Index: 8
13 Nigeria
Unsolved Cases: 5
Population: 190.9 m
Change: Improved
Years on Index: 6
14 India
Unsolved Cases: 18
Population: 1339.2 m
Change: Worsened
Years on Index: 11
UNESC: No
The Impunity Index is published annually to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on November 2. The Day was instituted after the UN General Assembly endorsed it in 2013.
