UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] urged greater protection for journalists’ rights [text] and honored journalists and media workers killed in the line of duty as he marked the second observation of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists [official website] on Monday. Ban noted, “[m]ore than 700 journalists have been killed in the last decade—one every five days—simply for bringing news and information to the public.” The secretary-general stressed the need to protect journalists and to defend their right to report freely, without censorship and without fear of retaliation. He also commended UNESCO [official website] for its leadership in the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity [text, PDF]. A resolution [text, PDF] proclaiming the second day of November as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists was passed in December 2013.

Journalism is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world [JURIST report], with more than 1,000 journalists killed since 1992 and more than 200 journalists imprisoned [CPJ factsheets]. In September the Israeli Parliament passed a new law that bans journalists from expressing their opinions [JURIST report] on the county’s public broadcasting network. In August Germany’s acting top federal prosecutor dropped a much-criticized treason investigation [JURIST report] into two prominent journalists working for Netzpolitik.org. In July a Thai court began proceedings in a criminal defamation lawsuit [JURIST report] brought on by the Thai Royal Navy against the website Phuketwan over a report it published claiming the military ignored refugee trafficking from Myanmar in exchange for monetary bribes.