In a now-infamous image, journalist James Foley is seen somewhere in the sands of Syria, on his knees in an orange jumpsuit while a back-clad terrorist threatens him with a knife. Deepening the depravity, his subsequent execution was filmed for propaganda and recruitment purposes by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Adding to the infamy is an account in the Oct. 26 New York Times headlined "The Horror Before the Beheadings." The story describes the inhuman treatment of all ISIL hostages, but especially Foley, whose waterboarding was just one of the tortures he endured before being killed.
The civilized world gasped at the ghastly images of Foley, and then Steven Sotloff, another American journalist who was beheaded. The harrowing tale in the Times surely shook some further. Those dedicated to protecting journalists were undoubtedly deeply disturbed, too. But likely not as surprised. The deaths of Foley and Sotloff were not isolated incidents, but rather part of a stunning pattern of murderers targeting journalists, mostly with impunity.
"When you talk about impunity, about journalists being murdered, people think about high-profile cases like foreign correspondents and the appalling and tragic beheadings. But what people don't realize is this is a weekly occurrence," said Elisabeth Witchel, the lead author of a Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) report released this week called "The Road to Justice: Breaking the Cycle of Impunity in the Killing of Journalists." Witchel, speaking from London, said that for the most part local journalists covering important issues in their own communities are being targeted.
The CPJ report may not be as graphic as the Foley photo, but it's deeply disturbing in its own right. Among key findings are that 370 journalists were killed because of their work between 2004 and 2013, with the vast majority local reporters investigating corruption, crime, human rights and war. In nine out of 10 cases, there has been total impunity. In fact, only 2 percent of the time was complete justice achieved. In most cases, if there was a prosecution, it was for "accomplices or triggermen." But rarely are the "masterminds," be they faceless terrorists or well-recognized leaders, ever held accountable.
Impunity compounds the problem. CPJ's Impunity Index jumped an average of 56 percent for 10 countries consistently named in each of the seven years it has been published (Afghanistan, Colombia, India, Iraq, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Somalia and Sri Lanka).
In much of the world, there appears to be a fundamental shift in how journalists are perceived. They've always been the target for propaganda. But now they're often just targets — marked for murder in order to silence them or to shout to the world how dangerous a group or ideology is.
And the trend may accelerate, according to the FBI, which issued a warning last week saying that ISIL sees media personalities and reporters as "desirable targets." And not just those on Syrian soil — the bureau claimed "recently obtained credible information indicating members of an ISIL-affiliated group are tasked with kidnapping journalists in the region and returning them to Syria. Members of this group might try to mask their affiliation with ISIL to gain access to journalists."
