Killing Journalists is Not Media Regulation: Private Rights, Collective Wrongs and the Impact of Impunity

This article, somewhat against the trend in that growing body of scholarship in this area, argues that there is a role for a new international instrument targeting the harassment of and violence against journalists. It supports this position by a review of UN and regional human rights jurisprudence, with an emphasis on hitherto undiscussed weaknesses, as well as by an analysis of loopholes in international humanitarian law. It concludes with suggestions for a new instrument, providing better safeguards for both journalists and societal interests in the media, and highlights how such an instrument would tackle the problems in the existing framework.