Environmental journalism is an increasingly dangerous profession, says UN chief

Journalists covering environmental issues have increasingly become targets of violence as the world faces an unprecedented environmental emergency, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday.

A report by UNESCO, the United Nations scientific and cultural organization, published the previous day showed an increase in violence against environmental journalists around the world by state and private actors.

“Press freedom is under siege and environmental journalism is an increasingly dangerous profession,” Guterres said in a video message at a World Press Freedom Day event in Santiago, Chile.

Guterres said dozens of journalists have died in recent years covering issues such as illegal mining, logging and poaching.

Of the 44 journalists who were killed in 15 countries while covering environmental issues between 2009 and 2023, only five cases resulted in convictions, according to the UNESCO report.

Meanwhile, more than 70% of the 905 journalists surveyed by the agency in 129 countries said they had been attacked, threatened or pressured, and that the violence against them had worsened.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric said that in Latin America the situation is “particularly pressing,” with two converging issues: “the protection of environmental defenders and the right to exercise freedom of expression.”

Boric, citing other figures on the deaths of environmental activists and journalists in Latin America, said that “the chilling figures should call for action,” while UNESCO director Audrey Azulay highlighted the case of journalist Dom Phillips and the indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, who were murdered. in the Brazilian Amazon in 2022.

Both Guterres and Boric also condemned the deaths of journalists killed in Gaza as Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian territory continue.