Help us end impunity for crimes against journalists

70 journalists have been killed since the start of 2024. More than 60 are missing and 320 imprisoned, as of Dec. 1, 2023. To silence journalists and suppress uncomfortable truths, countless others are threatened, harassed, assaulted and spied on daily.  

For seven years, our team and our 200 media partners have been on the front lines.

Acts of violence only fuel our determination and resilience. We are expanding our powerful international network of investigative journalists. In the face of increasingly organized enemies of the press, there is strength in unity. Why kill one journalist when there are dozens of others ready to continue their work? Anything people want to hide will only be amplified. The Streisand effect is in our DNA.  

In a world where journalists are risking their lives in Gaza and Kyiv so that the world knows what is happening — revealing much more than the propaganda images from involved governments and actors — we will continue our investigations on the targeting of the media, as we recently did for the Gaza Project. 

In a world where journalists investigating environmental crimes are some of the most at risk and with Azerbaijan preparing to host COP29, we will continue to publish investigations by journalists from Abzas Media, imprisoned for more than a year in the Ilham Aliyev regime’s jail cells.

In a world where Donald Trump considers journalists “enemies of the people,” and Elon Musk has made X a global “fake news” factory, we will continue our investigations on the deadly disinformation industry, pursuing the work of Gauri Lankesh, an Indian journalist assassinated in 2017.

Each investigation and each piece of information that manages to reach millions of people is a victory against impunity. The press is a vital counterweight in our democracies, and we need journalists to investigate and expose environmental crimes, corruption, surveillance, organized crime and human rights violations.

Today is not only a powerful reminder of the dangers that our fellow journalists face on the ground. It is a call to action. Please consider donating to Forbidden Stories so that these essential investigations can continue and you can keep reading and sharing these stories. 

Laurent Richard
Journalist and Forbidden Stories’ executive Director