Impunity Index, compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in countries where governments have consistently failed to solve journalists' murders, has placed Sierra Leone on top of African countries with worst impunity records.
However, Umaru Fofana, senior journalist and stringer for British Broadcasting Cooperation, BBC said the rating was unfair and must have been put together using old records.
“Agreed that the existence of the seditious libel law inhibits our practice as journalists, but ranking us close to Iraq is unfair. That can only be reflective of Sierra Leone of yester years. That said, we need more freedom that cannot be achieved where libel remains criminal,” he retorted.
Placed behind Iraq in the global ranking, Sierra Leone is seconded by Somalia with 79, 9 and 5 cases of unsolved murders of journalists respectively. Cases are considered unsolved when no convictions have been obtained.
“Every time a journalist is murdered and the killer is allowed to walk free, it sends a terrible signal to the press and to others who would harm journalists,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.
“The governments on this list simply must do more to demonstrate a real commitment to a free press. Lip service won't help save journalists' lives. We are calling for action: thorough investigations and vigorous prosecutions in all journalist homicides.”
CPJ's Impunity Index, compiled for the first time this year, calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of the population in each country.
The New York based group examined every nation in the world for the years 1998 through 2007. Only those nations with five or more unsolved cases are included in the13 countries on CPJ's Impunity Index. The remaining countries on the list are Colombia , Sri Lanka , Philippines , Afghanistan , Nepal , Russia , Mexico , Bangladesh , Pakistan and India .
CPJ noted that the 11-year civil war, which ended in 2002, took a great human toll across Sierra Leonean society. Many of the nine journalist murders which remain unsolved stem from a particularly brutal period in January 1999 when rebels took the capital, Freetown .
A newspaper editor Harry Yansaneh was also mentioned beaten to death in 2005 allegedly by a member of parliament and her relatives.
The Index was released in advance of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, because CPJ is raising awareness about a disturbing pattern of impunity in these 13 countries across the globe.
