Radio Free never accepts money from corporations, governments or billionaires – keeping the focus on supporting independent media for people, not profits. Since 2010, Radio Free has supported the work of thousands of independent journalists, learn more about how your donation helps improve journalism for everyone.

Make a monthly donation of any amount to support independent media.





CPJ urges International Criminal Court to seek justice for journalist Danish Siddiqui

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the ICC to act on a petition filed by Siddiqui’s family.

Information and Evidence Unit
Office of the Prosecutor
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM The Hague
The Netherlands

Sent via email

To the Office of the Prosecutor:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, has long campaigned for justice in the cases of murdered journalists. From 2011 to 2021, no one has been held to account in 81 percent of the journalist murders worldwide, according to CPJ research. This widespread failure of governments around the world to hold the perpetrators of attacks against journalists to account is a key factor undermining global press freedom.

Given the need for credible investigations and justice as a deterrent in journalist killings, CPJ strongly supports the submission by the family of photojournalist Danish Siddiqui calling for a formal investigation into the circumstances of his death by the International Criminal Court.

Siddiqui was killed on July 16, 2021, in the Spin Boldak district of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, while covering the conflict there with the news agency Reuters. On March 22, 2022, Siddiqui’s family filed a petition with the ICC against several senior Taliban leaders and calling for an investigation to identify those who carried out the killing. The family’s submission presents a compelling set of facts that, as described in the petition, concern “the attack on, torture, and unlawful killing of war correspondent, Mr. Danish Siddiqui.” CPJ urges the ICC to act on this petition in order to seek justice for Siddiqui’s family.

An ICC investigation into this case and the search for justice is especially important considering the conditions in Afghanistan, where human rights are suffering a massive reversal. In CPJ’s 2021 impunity rankings, which measure the countries where the killers of journalists most often go free, Afghanistan ranked fifth. There is now little prospect that the 17 journalists murdered for their work in the last 10 years will see even a semblance of justice in an Afghan court.

Since the Taliban took control, CPJ has documented a steady increase in a range of attacks on journalists who are simply reporting the news, including arbitrary detentions and sometimes severe physical abuse. In an extremely worrisome trend, increasingly, attacks on journalists are perpetrated by the Taliban General Directorate of Intelligence, as CPJ has documented.

The launch of an ICC investigation into Siddiqui’s death would serve as an unmistakable signal that journalists should not be targeted, and the deadly silencing of their reporting will not be tolerated by the international community.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Robert Mahoney
Executive Director
Committee to Protect Journalists


This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.


Print Share Comment Cite Upload Translate Updates

Leave a Reply

APA

Erik Crouch | Radio Free (2022-06-15T18:11:08+00:00) CPJ urges International Criminal Court to seek justice for journalist Danish Siddiqui. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2022/06/15/cpj-urges-international-criminal-court-to-seek-justice-for-journalist-danish-siddiqui/

MLA
" » CPJ urges International Criminal Court to seek justice for journalist Danish Siddiqui." Erik Crouch | Radio Free - Wednesday June 15, 2022, https://www.radiofree.org/2022/06/15/cpj-urges-international-criminal-court-to-seek-justice-for-journalist-danish-siddiqui/
HARVARD
Erik Crouch | Radio Free Wednesday June 15, 2022 » CPJ urges International Criminal Court to seek justice for journalist Danish Siddiqui., viewed ,<https://www.radiofree.org/2022/06/15/cpj-urges-international-criminal-court-to-seek-justice-for-journalist-danish-siddiqui/>
VANCOUVER
Erik Crouch | Radio Free - » CPJ urges International Criminal Court to seek justice for journalist Danish Siddiqui. [Internet]. [Accessed ]. Available from: https://www.radiofree.org/2022/06/15/cpj-urges-international-criminal-court-to-seek-justice-for-journalist-danish-siddiqui/
CHICAGO
" » CPJ urges International Criminal Court to seek justice for journalist Danish Siddiqui." Erik Crouch | Radio Free - Accessed . https://www.radiofree.org/2022/06/15/cpj-urges-international-criminal-court-to-seek-justice-for-journalist-danish-siddiqui/
IEEE
" » CPJ urges International Criminal Court to seek justice for journalist Danish Siddiqui." Erik Crouch | Radio Free [Online]. Available: https://www.radiofree.org/2022/06/15/cpj-urges-international-criminal-court-to-seek-justice-for-journalist-danish-siddiqui/. [Accessed: ]
rf:citation
» CPJ urges International Criminal Court to seek justice for journalist Danish Siddiqui | Erik Crouch | Radio Free | https://www.radiofree.org/2022/06/15/cpj-urges-international-criminal-court-to-seek-justice-for-journalist-danish-siddiqui/ |

Please log in to upload a file.




There are no updates yet.
Click the Upload button above to add an update.

You must be logged in to translate posts. Please log in or register.