UNESCO urges a safer environment for journalists to do their work – #KeepTruthAlive

When a journalist searches for truth, death often finds them instead. In 12 years, over 1000 journalists have been killed. In war zones. But also at home. On the corner of the street. On the corner of your street. They were killed in cold blood. Deliberately. With impunity. To silence topics some people wanted to keep hidden. UNESCO #KeepTruthAlive

2 November is the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. 9 out of 10 cases are unresolved. 93% of killed journalists were local journalists. It is up to all of us, citizens, to help protect journalists, so that they may continue to inform us.

A series of 12 portraits of local journalists that have been killed were also developed and shared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to illustrate how the threats, intimidations and the fear of being attacked are often an everyday reality for some journalists. To that end, UNESCO and DDB Paris developed a Google Maps, keeptruthalive.co (link is external), which features the names, dates and locations of the 1348 journalist killings that have been condemned by UNESCO since 1993. Internet users are thus able to access information on each journalist, and to share the map on social media to call for justice and demand an end to impunity for the violence perpetuated against media workers.

Tags:
DDB Paris, UNESCO, Public Interest, NGO, Journalist, Google Maps, Technology, Innovation, Violence, #KeepTruthAlive, Keep Truth Alive, Digital Campaign, Social Media