Mizzima
In a report entitled “Press and Planet in Danger” UNESCO highlights the dangers and difficulties for journalists covering the environment, released on World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.
As the report notes, the global environmental crises of climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution,
impact the lives of billions worldwide and environmental journalism plays a key role in how the world understands this. Reporters and the media who cover environmental issues and its impact not only raise awareness among disengaged audiences who inattentively believe the climate crisis does not affect them, but also document and tell the stories of the marginalized communities who carry the heavy burden of a changing climate. In this sense, reporters covering environmental issues are the
chroniclers of humanity’s major challenge and play a role in holding policy-makers accountable to this crisis.
However, environmental journalism is a perilous field. Reporters chronicling the climate crisis often find themselves in remote and isolated locations, far from the reach of immediate help or legal protection. Whether they are investigating deforestation in the Amazon, pollution in industrial regions, or illegal
mining in Africa, the remote nature of these assignments adds a significant layer of risk. The challenges of travel, communication, and personal safety in these secluded areas can turn a reporting task into a dangerous mission, highlighting the unique vulnerabilities associated with environmental journalism.
And the work of these journalists frequently intersects with highly profitable economic activities, adding complexity and danger to their roles. Covering issues like illegal logging, poaching, or clandestine waste dumping, involves exposing actions that are interwoven with local and sometimes international economies. This overlap can provoke hostility from a wide array of actors, including corporations, local smallscale operators, and criminal organizations, all of whom have vested interests in continuing their activities away from public scrutiny. These stakeholders often viewing environmental journalists as direct threats to their operations.
Moreover, the readiness of some of these actors to resort to violence poses a serious threat to journalists. State and private actors, as well as criminal groups, have been known to intimidate, harass, or even physically harm journalists in an effort to silence their reporting. The global scale of these threats underscores the widespread and serious nature of the challenges faced by environmental journalists.
In addition, environmental journalism is often a precarized occupation often left to small and underfunded news outlets and independent reporters who lack the resources to mitigate the risks they face and to respond to the attacks they suffer.
To grasp the extent, nature, and geographies of such issues, UNESCO collected data from multiple sources and analysed information on a diverse set of attacks against this population. In all, this review found that at least 749 journalists, groups of journalists and news media outlets have been attacked while covering environmental issues in 89 countries between 2009 and 2023 – an average of fifty attacks per year, and in all regions of the world.
Collectively, these journalists and news outlets covered a wide range of topics: from climate change causes—like mining, deforestation, and the fossil fuel industry—to environmental issues directly impacting their communities—corporations encroaching on their resources, land grabs, mega-projects, and the aftermath of extreme weather events. In doing so, they not only shed light on the issues happening in their backyards but also produced knowledge on how the global climate crisis looks at the most local level.
Recognizing that many attacks go unreported and aiming to comprehend the full spectrum of safety challenges journalists and media outlets face while covering environmental stories, UNESCO, in partnership with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), conducted a survey among reporters from 129 countries. Of the 905 journalists who took the survey, over 70% reported being subject to attacks. The survey revealed that women journalists report digital aggressions more frequently than men, while freelancers report higher levels of attacks compared to reporters employed full-time by media outlets.
About one third of the respondents said they have been censored by editors while covering environmental issues and 45% indicated they have practiced self-censorship driven by fears of potential attacks, having their sources exposed to harm, and being aware that their environmental coverage might conflict with the interests of their employers or advertisers.
Through this comprehensive report, UNESCO underscores the critical need for greater protection and support for journalists and media outlets as they continue to cover environmental issues and thus advocate for a sustainable future.
The following are some of the key points raised in the report:
At least 749 journalists, groups of journalists, and news media outlets reporting on environmental issues
have been attacked in 89 countries between 2009 and 2023, in all regions of the world.
Over 300 attacks occurred in the past five years, marking a 42% increase from the preceding five-year
period. This surge is attributed to a rise in physical attacks like assaults, arrests and harassment, and
legal actions including defamation lawsuits and criminal prosecutions.
State actors have committed at least half of the 749 attacks. Private actors are responsible for at least a quarter.
A total of 44 journalists reporting on environmental issues have been killed in 15 different countries
between 2009 and 2023, with only five cases resulting in convictions. At least 24 journalists survived murder attempts.
Between 2009 to 2023, at least 204 journalists and news outlets covering environmental issues have
faced legal attacks. State actors filed criminal charges against 93 of them. 39 journalists have been
imprisoned, primarily in Asia and the Pacific. Defamation lawsuits are common with at least 63
cases, predominantly in Europe and North America.
There have been at least 194 journalists attacked at environmental protests in the past 15 years,
mainly in Europe, North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Police and military forces
are the main perpetrators with 89 attacks, while protesters account for 32 attacks.
UNESCO and the International Federation of Journalists conducted a survey with 905 respondents from 129 countries. Over 70% reported being subject to attacks, threats or pressure while covering environmental issues. Men reporters experience all types of attacks more frequently than women, except for digital aggressions.
407 respondents (45%) said they have practiced self-censorship driven by fears of potential attacks, having their sources exposed to harm, and being aware that their environmental coverage might conflict with the interests of their employers or advertisers.
