The Safety of Journalists

A/HRC/RES/45/18View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2020.

What other versions does this mandate have?

6 versions · 2014–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/HRC/RES/59/15

2025A/HRC/RES/59/15The safety of journalistsLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/HRC/RES/51/9The safety of journalistsCompare with previous version
2020A/HRC/RES/45/18The safety of journalistsCompare with previous version
2018A/HRC/RES/39/6The safety of journalistsCompare with previous version
2016A/HRC/RES/33/2The safety of journalistsCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 topics

Access to Information Accountability Covid-19 Freedom of the Press Gender-Based Violence Human Rights Violations Journalists Right to Security of Person

What does this mandate say?

41 operative paragraphs

Condemns unequivocally all attacks, reprisals and violence against journalists and media workers, such as killings, torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest and arbitrary detention, expulsion, intimidation, threats and harassment, online and offline, including through attacks on or the forced closure of their offices and media outlets in both conflict and non-conflict situations;

Also condemns unequivocally the specific attacks on women journalists and media workers in relation to their work, such as gender-based discrimination, including sexual and gender-based violence, threats, intimidation and harassment, online and offline;

Strongly condemns the prevailing impunity for attacks and violence against journalists, and expresses grave concern that the vast majority of these crimes go unpunished, which in turn contributes to the recurrence of these crimes;

Condemns unequivocally measures in violation of international human rights law aiming to or that intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or the dissemination of information online and offline, which undermine the work of journalists in informing the public, including through practices such as Internet shutdowns or measures to unlawfully or arbitrarily block or take down media websites, such as denial of service attacks, and calls upon all States to cease and refrain from these measures, which cause irreparable harm to efforts at building inclusive and peaceful knowledge societies and democracies;

Expresses concern about the spread of disinformation and propaganda, including on the Internet, which can be designed and implemented so as to mislead, to violate human rights, including the rights to privacy and to freedom of expression, to spread hatred, racism, xenophobia, negative stereotyping or stigmatization, and to incite violence, discrimination and hostility, and emphasizes the important contribution by journalists in countering this trend;

Stresses the importance of the full respect for the right to seek, receive and impart information, as included in the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and in this regard for the freedom of journalists to have access to information held by public authorities and the right of the general public to receive media output, and that the safety of journalists and media workers is indispensable to ensure these rights;

Urges political leaders, public officials and/or authorities to refrain from denigrating, intimidating or threatening the media, including individual journalists, or using misogynist or any discriminatory language towards women journalists, thereby undermining trust in the credibility of journalists and respect for the importance of independent journalism;

Urges the immediate and unconditional release of journalists and media workers who have been arbitrarily arrested or arbitrarily detained, taken hostage or who have become victims of enforced disappearance;

Underlines the importance of providing for an enabling environment for the work of civil society organizations, as they play a vital role in enhancing the safety and security of journalists and media workers;

Calls upon States:

To bring their laws, policies and practices fully into compliance with their obligations and commitments under international human rights law, and to review and where necessary repeal or amend them so that they do not limit the ability of journalists and media workers to perform their work independently and without undue interference;

To establish prevention mechanisms, such as an early warning and rapid response mechanism, to give journalists and media workers, when threatened, immediate access to authorities competent and adequately resourced to provide effective protective measures;

To develop and implement strategies for combating impunity for attacks and violence against journalists, including by, inter alia, (i) creating special investigative units or independent commissions, (ii) appointing a specialized prosecutor, and (iii) adopting specific protocols and methods of investigation and prosecution;

To ensure accountability through the conduct of impartial, prompt, thorough, independent and effective investigations into all alleged violence, threats and attacks against journalists and media workers falling within their jurisdiction, to bring perpetrators, including those who command, conspire to commit, aid and abet or cover up such crimes to justice, and to ensure that victims and their families have access to appropriate restitution, compensation and assistance;

To ensure that measures to combat terrorism and preserve national security, public order or health are in compliance with their obligations under international law and do not arbitrarily or unduly hinder the work and safety of journalists, including through arbitrary arrest or detention, or the threat thereof;

To support capacity-building, training and awareness-raising in the judiciary and among law enforcement officers and military and security personnel, as well as among media organizations, journalists and civil society, regarding States’ international human rights and international humanitarian law obligations and commitments relating to the safety of journalists;

To take into account the specific role, exposure and vulnerability of journalists and media workers observing, monitoring, recording and reporting protests and assemblies, and to protect their safety;

To ensure that defamation and libel laws are not misused, in particular through excessive criminal sanctions, to illegitimately or arbitrarily censor journalists and interfere with their mission of informing the public, and where necessary to revise and repeal such laws, in compliance with States’ obligations under international human rights law;

To protect in law and in practice the confidentiality of journalists’ sources, including whistle-blowers, in acknowledgement of the essential role of journalists and those who provide them with information in fostering government accountability and an inclusive and peaceful society, subject only to limited and clearly defined exceptions provided for in national legal frameworks, including judicial authorization, in compliance with States’ obligations under international human rights law;

To adopt and implement transparent, clear and expedient laws and policies that provide for the effective disclosure of information held by public authorities, including online, and a general right to request and receive information, for which public access should be granted, except within narrow, proportionate, necessary and clearly defined limitations that comply with international human rights law;

To refrain from interference with the use of technologies such as encryption and anonymity tools, and from employing unlawful or arbitrary surveillance techniques, including through hacking;

To ensure that targeted surveillance technologies are only used in accordance with the human rights principles of lawfulness, legitimacy, necessity and proportionality, and that legal mechanisms of redress and effective remedies are available for victims of surveillance-related violations and abuses;

To promote the availability and accessibility of the broadest possible diversity of media content and the representation of the whole diversity of society in the media, and in this regard to do their utmost to reduce the economic vulnerability of journalists;

To cooperate with journalists, the media and civil society organizations to assess the damage that the COVID-19 pandemic is inflicting on the provision of vital information to the public and the sustainability of media environments, and to consider, wherever possible, devising appropriate mechanisms to provide financial support to the media, including local journalism and investigative reporting, and to ensure that support is given without compromising editorial independence;

To take measures to prevent sexual harassment and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including threats, threats of rape, intimidation and harassment against women journalists, to encourage the reporting of harassment or violence by providing gender-sensitive investigative procedures, to provide adequate support, remedy, reparations and compensation for victims, including psychological support as part of broader efforts to promote and protect the human rights of women, to eliminate gender inequality and to tackle gender-based stereotypes in society, and to prohibit incitement to hatred against women journalists, online and offline, and other forms of abuse and harassment through relevant policy and legal measures that comply with international human rights law;

To give full support for and to raise public awareness of the importance of independent, plural and diverse media, online as well as offline, inter alia by government representatives publicly, unequivocally and systematically condemning violence, intimidation, threats and attacks against journalists and media workers and refraining from verbally attacking journalists, inciting hatred against them or distrust towards independent journalists;

To establish or enhance information-gathering and monitoring mechanisms, such as databases, to permit the collection, analysis and reporting of concrete quantitative and qualitative disaggregated data on threats, attacks or violence against journalists, and to do their utmost to make data, in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal indicator 16.10.1, available to relevant entities, in particular the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization;

To provide for an enabling environment for civil society organizations to contribute to monitor and report cases of violence against the media and other infringements of freedom of expression, to provide assistance to journalists and media workers against wrongful prosecutions, and to advocate for crimes against them to be properly investigated and, where appropriate, for improvement of legal frameworks governing an enabling environment for journalists and media workers;

To integrate the issue of the safety of journalists and media freedom and access to information into national development frameworks under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

To ensure better internal coordination and sharing of information, in particular within and between relevant ministries, law enforcement and the judiciary at the local and national levels;

To sign, ratify and implement more effectively the international and regional human rights instruments relevant to the safety of journalists and media workers, and to implement relevant resolutions adopted by United Nations bodies and regional intergovernmental organizations and the recommendations made by treaty bodies, the special procedures and in the context of the universal periodic review relating to the safety of journalists;

Recognizes the important contribution of the promotion and protection of the safety of journalists in the realization of Sustainable Development Goal target 16.10;

Emphasizes the important role that media organizations can play in providing adequate safety, risk awareness, digital security and self-protection training and guidance to journalists and media workers, in particular for journalists on dangerous assignments, together with protective equipment and insurances, where necessary;

Stresses the need to ensure better cooperation and coordination at the international level, including through technical assistance and capacity-building, with regard to ensuring the safety of journalists, and encourages national, subregional, regional and international human rights mechanisms and bodies, including the relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council, treaty bodies and national human rights institutions, in the framework of their mandates, to continue to address the relevant aspects of the safety of journalists in their work;

Invites United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, other international and regional organizations, Member States and all relevant stakeholders, when applicable and in the scope of their mandates, to cooperate further in promoting awareness of and implementing the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, and to this end calls upon States to cooperate with relevant United Nations entities, in particular the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council and international and regional human rights mechanisms;

Invites all relevant special procedure mandate holders of the Human Rights Council to continue and strengthen their work and cooperation relating to the issue of the safety of journalist and impunity;

Invites States to share information on a voluntary basis on the status of investigations into attacks and violence against journalists, including in response to requests by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization through the mechanism operated by its International Programme for the Development of Communication;

Encourages States to continue to address the issue of the safety of journalists through the process of the universal periodic review;

Requests the High Commissioner to present to the Human Rights Council at its forty-eighth session a report on the impact and repercussions of measures taken by Governments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on the safety and work of journalists and media workers, integrating a gender perspective, and to identify trends and collect good practices, in particular on how the Office of the High Commissioner, within its mandate and working with other relevant United Nations entities, can assist, when requested, in the development of national approaches to protect journalists;

Encourages States and all other relevant stakeholders to take the opportunity of the proclamation of 2 November as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists to raise awareness regarding the issue of the safety of journalists and to launch concrete initiatives in this regard;

Decides to continue its consideration of the safety of journalists in accordance with its programme of work.

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