SNHR noted today, which marks the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, that no less than 634 journalists and citizen journalists have been killed in Syria in the last seven years, to an average of two journalists per week, which reflects an unprecedented level of violence and violations against journalists and citizen journalists in Syria since the start of the popular uprising for freedom in March 2011.
While the main parties to the conflict in Syria have practiced acts of violence against journalists and citizen journalists, committing crimes against them that qualify as war crimes, the Syrian regime has been, first and foremost, the primary perpetrator, being responsible for 83% of crimes, as the Syrian regime’s crimes constitute crimes against humanity.
The Syrian regime has fought media activism systematically, committing hundreds of violations against journalists and citizen journalists, including killing, arrest, and torture in order to conceal the violations of human rights that the Syrian people has and is experiencing, and to hide the crimes against Syrian citizens. This goes hand-in-hand with a complete lack of accountability and observation, as we never recorded any investigations or accountability processes by the Syrian authorities for the crimes against the Syrian people, in general, and against journalists and citizen journalists in particular, nor any criminals were brought to justice which undoubtedly encourages more crimes in light of a complete impunity and what it entails of destruction of societies and absence of justice.
Certainly, the other parties, mostly ISIS, has been responsible for similar violations, but to different extents, and we rarely saw any accountability processes for those responsible for violations against journalists and citizen journalists.
