Over the past decade, attacks against journalists have continued, but in recent years the nature and scope of the onslaughts have changed, with media workers now having to contend with digital threats.
This year’s theme for the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, Threats Evolve. Impunity Endures, is apt, as it captures the evolution of attacks on media workers and reminds us that more must be done to protect journalists and to prosecute perpetrators.
The theme accurately captures the grave reality facing media practitioners in our region.
While traditional physical attacks, arbitrary arrests and harassment remain persistent hazards, the domain of hostility towards journalists has rapidly expanded into the digital sphere.
On this International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists 2026, commemorated annually on 2 November, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) stands in solidarity with journalists, media workers, and defenders of free expression throughout Southern Africa.
As part of our core mandate to monitor digital rights and media freedom, MISA highlights with profound concern that the digital space has become a hostile frontier for truth-tellers.
Journalists across SADC are increasingly targeted by sophisticated digital attacks, including unlawful interception of communications that compromise confidential source protection and personal security, organised digital smear campaigns, trolling and gender-based online abuse designed to silence critical voices, particularly those of female journalists.
Digital censorship, characterised by cyberattacks, hacking and state-backed digital throttling aimed at disrupting independent reporting platforms, is on the rise.
When digital threats evolve faster than legal safeguards, state inaction allows perpetrators to act with near-total impunity.
Digital attacks are not virtual nuisances; they facilitate physical violence and create a pervasive chilling effect across the region.
Impunity persists because those who commit, order or sponsor crimes against journalists are rarely brought to justice.
Physical violence against newsroom leaders remains an open wound in Southern Africa.
MISA, alongside our national chapters, including MISA Lesotho, reiterates calls for an immediate end to official inertia in addressing physical crimes against journalists.
Specifically, we demand full, transparent investigations and the swift prosecution of all perpetrators responsible for the abduction and violent targeting of Lesotho editor Kananelo Boloetse.
The failure to prosecute those responsible for abducting and attacking editors decisively sends a dangerous signal that targeting the press carries no consequences.
Justice delayed is justice denied.
Until those who abduct, assault and intimidate journalists face the full force of the law, impunity will persist.
MISA urges SADC Member States, judicial bodies and law enforcement agencies to take immediate, concrete action.
- Thoroughly investigate all cold and active cases of violence, abduction and murder involving media workers, ensuring that both perpetrators and masterminds face trial
- Align national cyber laws with regional and international human rights standards to prevent state surveillance, protect digital privacy and safeguard electronic whistleblowing and source confidentiality.
- Create independent regional monitoring bodies and rapid-response protocols to investigate digital threats, cyber harassment and physical safety risks to journalists
- Uphold democratic guarantees by fostering media independence, legal reform and an environment in which journalists can operate without fear of digital or physical reprisal
MISA Regional Office International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists Statement
Jeremias Langa
Chairperson
MISA Regional Governing Council
