RSF: In the last 10 years, 19 journalists have been kidnapped and disappeared

The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) organization condemns the active role governments play in maintaining silence around the fate and whereabouts of the 19 media professionals who have fallen victim to enforced disappearance since 2015, and who remain missing. RSF calls on the authorities to do everything in their power to ensure these journalists recover their freedom.

Today, over half of the world’s journalists who have disappeared over the past ten years are victims of enforced disappearance: By RSF’s count, that’s 19 of the 32 journalists who have gone missing in the last decade. 

Governments are directly responsible for this as, by definition, an “enforced disappearance” refers to a deprivation of liberty caused by state agents who deny or conceal the fate and whereabouts of the missing person.

“At a time when the number of enforced disappearances continues to rise, RSF is concerned about the active role played by certain authorities in silencing journalists’ voices at the detriment of their freedom. RSF calls for the universal ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 but only counts 75 ratifications to date,” reads the statement.

It was noted that Ukraine, Mali, China, Burkina Faso, Nicaragua, Syria, Palestine and others are among those 12 countries.