MANILA, Philippines — Justice remains elusive for many journalists killed in the Philippines and elsewhere in the world.
For the 17th consecutive year, the Philippines is again on the list of countries where killers of journalists will likely go unpunished.
The Global Impunity Index, first launched by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in 2008, ranks countries based on unsolved murders of journalists in the past decade in proportion to population.
The Philippines is among the six that have consistently appeared on the list year after year. The others were Somalia, Iraq, Mexico, Pakistan and India.
From eighth last year, the Philippines ranked ninth out of 13 countries in this year’s index.
But the movement is not necessarily seen as an improvement as it was due to the entry of Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territory, which entered the list for the first time at number two.
The latest index took into account deliberate killings of journalists in retaliation for their work that occurred from Sept. 1, 2014 to Aug. 31, 2024.
In the Philippines, this included 18 unsolved murders, down from 20 last year.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines monitored killings of at least 23 media workers during the Duterte administration, with another four reported during the current Marcos administration.
“Full justice remains elusive for the 32 reporters and media workers killed in the Maguindanao massacre 15 years ago – one of the deadliest attacks on the press – as well as journalists like Gerry Ortega, a radio broadcaster killed in 2011,” CPJ said.
In 2019, the Philippines improved its rank from fifth to seventh after the cases related to the Maguindanao massacre were removed as it was no longer within the 10-year timeframe for calculating the index.
CPJ said the partial convictions in 2019 also adjusted the status of the Ampatuan cases from full to partial immunity.
The country’s subsequent downward movements in 2023 and this year were due to the entries of new countries.
Haiti ranked first this year with seven unsolved murders in the past decade, followed by Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (eight), Somalia (nine), Syria (11), South Sudan (five), Afghanistan (18), Iraq (11) and Mexico (21).
Following the Philippines were Myanmar (eight), Brazil (10), Pakistan (eight) and India (19). The rankings take into account the countries’ population in proportion to the number of unsolved murders.