When Truth Falls, Democracies Bleed
2025-11-02
STATEMENT TO MARK THE INTERNATIONAL DAY TO END IMPUNITY FOR CRIMES AGAINST JOURNALISTS, 2025
On this International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, the NMT Media Foundation stands in resolute solidarity with journalists across the globe who risk everything to pursue and publish the truth. We reaffirm: Journalism Is Not A Crime.
We honour the lives of journalists murdered, imprisoned, tortured, or disappeared for doing their job - from Gaza, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to conflict zones and repressive regimes across the world.
These are not “casualties of war.” They are deliberate targets. The killings of journalists in Gaza, Sudan and the DRC are not random acts - they are calculated moves to silence witnesses and obliterate accountability.
In Gaza, the genocide unfolds in full view of the world. Journalists covering this atrocity are not collateral damage; they are hunted down, because the truth threatens impunity. Every assassination of a media worker is not just an attack on a person, but on the principle that the world has a right to know.
The world’s failure to hold Israel accountable has reshaped the global landscape for journalist safety. It has set a perilous precedent. If one state can kill journalists with impunity, others will follow. And they have done so.
In Sudan, reporters are raped, starved, and executed in a civil war where impunity reigns. In the DRC, those exposing the link between corruption, cobalt, and conflict are hunted down. These journalists die because their work exposes the abuse of power. Their deaths go unanswered, and that is the problem.
AI-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence: A Digital Weapon of Silence
This year, we also confront an urgent, invisible threat: the rise of AI-facilitated gender-based violence against women journalists. Generative AI is now being weaponised - producing deepfake pornography, doctored images, and false narratives to discredit and intimidate women out of public spaces.
This is not simply “online abuse.” It is a systemic and deeply gendered form of silencing.
The data is alarming:
• 73% of women journalists globally have experienced online violence.
• In Zimbabwe, 63% of women journalists have suffered tech-facilitated abuse.
• 1 in 5 women journalists who experience online abuse have also been attacked offline.
These are not numbers. They are warnings. And the consequences are real: many women self-censor, withdraw, or leave journalism entirely as a result.
A Call to Action
Impunity is not the absence of justice, it is the presence of permission.
We call on all stakeholders to act:
• Governments must enforce protections for journalists, both offline and online. Technology-facilitated GBV must be criminalised. Perpetrators must be prosecuted, not protected.
• Technology companies must stop outsourcing accountability to victims. Their platforms must be redesigned to prevent abuse, not profit from it.
• Media institutions must mainstream safety as a newsroom imperative: psychological, digital, and physical.
A Moment to Reflect, A Mandate to Act
In collaboration with Stellenbosch University’s Department of Journalism and in response to UNESCO’s call for national action, the NMT Media Foundation invites you to our public webinar:
‘Silencing the Messenger: How Impunity Threatens Democracy’
Date: Monday, 3 November 2025
Time: 14h00 SAST (UTC+2)
Join us online:
To the brave journalists in Palestine, Sudan, the DRC, those on the digital frontline and beyond, we say: we grieve your losses, we honour your courage. Continue to speak truth to power. #JournalismIsNotACrime
Zoé Titus
Executive Director, NMT Media Foundation
Enquiries: info@nmt.africa
About NMT Media Foundation
The NMT Media Foundation (formerly known as Namibia Media Trust) is a Namibian non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing ethical journalism, protecting press freedom, and promoting a robust media environment. Through advocacy, training, and direct support for journalists, the Foundation works to ensure that the media can serve the public interest without fear or favour.