IBADAN, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – 89% is trending on Twitter following a statement shared by United Nations on its Twitter page on Wednesday, 2 November, 2022.
A overwhelming majority of killings of journalists across the world go unpunished, a United Nations agency reported on Wednesday, as the world organisation celebrated females in journalism.
The world organisation took to Twitter on Wednesday to speak against the killings of female journalists.
The statement shared on UN_Women Twitter page read: “Of all journalists killed in 2021, 11% were women. In 2020, this was 6%. (Source: @UNESCO)
“On the International Day to #EndImpunity for Crimes against Journalists, let us say out loud:
“𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍 𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐒 ProtectJournalists”
The tweet sparked controversies as many kicked against it.
A tweep, @kukuruyo who found the UN tweet unbelievable said: “So 89% of journalists killed are men but your issue is that it should be 100% men?”
Another tweep, Mikkel tweeted: “I simply refuse to believe that an official UN account would tweet this. You’re making a mockery of the UN.”
@GendeparityUK also tweeted: “This is doublespeak!
89% of journalists killed were male – and you say:
“𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍 𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐒”
Does @UN_Women hate men?
Do dead men not count as a tragedy?”
@including_women wrote: “So you’re saying it would be just fine if 100% of journalists killed were men?”
@JABDE6 weighed in, saying: “Just saw a screenshot of this, had to come and make sure it was actually real. Probably one of the funniest misuses of statistics I’ve seen in a while, especially for bad messaging
“One question though is what percentage of journalists globally are women?
“As in, what’s the Probability if a journalist being killed given they’re a woman and maybe field work in journalism, not just editing in a building. I imagine places with more journalist killings, there might be more men vs women journalists, that number may put this in context.”
Microwave, another Twitter user, said UN’s tweet is the most sexist thing he had seen all day.
“This is probably the most sexist thing i’ve seen all day.”
UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization whose brief includes media issues, on its part said, “Impunity for killings of journalists remains unacceptably high at 86 percent”.
UNESCO called for “all necessary measures to ensure that crimes committed against journalists are properly investigated and their perpetrators identified and convicted.”
The organization called the global immunity rate for journalist killings “shockingly high” in a report to coincide with the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, a U.N.-backed initiative.
UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, said in a statement that “Freedom of expression cannot be protected when there is such a staggering number of unresolved cases.”
She said impunity had a “chilling effect on investigative reporting”.
While UNESCO welcomed a 9-percentage-point drop in the impunity rate over the past decade, it said this was insufficient to stop what it called “the spiral of violence.”