Webinar: From Judgments to Justice: Human Rights Bodies vs. Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists

On Monday, 3 November 2025, Media Defence held a case-driven conversation on how regional courts and UN mechanisms can help in reducing impunity for crimes against journalists – and why achieving strong legal precedents and their implementation remain both an important tool as well as an ongoing challenge.

Litigating cases of violence against journalists is rarely straightforward. Long before decisions are delivered, lawyers and journalists often face varied barriers: long and costly proceedings, lack of judicial independence, weak or absent mechanisms or limited resources.

In many regions, pursuing justice also carries serious safety risks for those involved – from the journalists and their families to the lawyers representing them. Favourable rulings are often hard won – and ensuring that such judgments are implemented and translate into real protection on the ground presents another uphill battle. Yet, every positive ruling erodes impunity.

When justice is achieved for those who have risked – and in some cases lost – their lives to tell the truth, it can honour their sacrifice, protect their families, bring compensation or release from imprisonment, strengthen protections for other journalists, and uphold our shared right to be informed.

Why Watch?

This webinar brought together experts from four key regions to reflect on challenges and successes when seeking to obtain and implement judgments to counter impunity for crimes against journalists in different regions. The discussion will explore different regional systems, including the Inter-American, the European and the West African human rights systems as well as jurisprudence produced by the UN Working

Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Having taken place just after the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists (2 November) – and in the context of UNESCO’s finding that 85% of journalist killings remain unsolved – this event highlighted the importance of cross-regional dialogue and strategising in the fight against impunity. By sharing and learning from experiences across regions, the discussion explored how strong precedents can be secured, how compliance with judgments can be improved, and how regional and international mechanisms can reinforce one another. In a global context where access to legal remedies remains uneven, collaborative reflection and shared strategies are essential to protecting journalists through the courts.

Speakers

Wiebke Hangst, Legal Officer, Media Defence (moderator)

Furkat Tishaev, Law and Advocacy Officer, European Implementation Network

Furkat joined EIN in June 2025 as Law and Advocacy Officer ad interim. He has previously worked in the human rights field in various capacities, including as an adviser to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, a legal director with the Stitching Russian Justice Initiative, as a senior lawyer of Memorial Human Rights Center (the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate) and as a lecturer on Human Rights course at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Furkat holds a Master’s degree in International Public Law from the faculty of law of the Strasbourg University (former University of Robert Schuman).

Carlos Domínguez, Lawyer, Propuesta Cívica

Carlos Domínguez holds a Law degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He specializes in Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Human Rights, and Anti-corruption. He has worked in public institutions, human rights organizations, and law firms focused on criminal and constitutional litigation. He currently serves as a litigation lawyer at Propuesta Cívica, representing cases of human rights violations against journalists and human rights defenders.

Duy (Dan) Hoang, Executive Director of Viet Tan, unsanctioned pro-democracy political party in Vietnam

He previously worked as an investment banker with a focus on East Asia. During his trips to Vietnam, he witnessed the dynamism of the people, but also the need for democracy to harness the country’s full potential. He has testified before US Congressional committees on human rights issues and written for the Wall Street Journal, the Diplomat, Asia Times Online and leading Vietnamese-language publications.

Born in Saigon, he left Vietnam in April 1975 at the age of three. He holds a B.A. from the University of California, Davis and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He currently lives in New York City.

Tsema Yvonne Ede, Human Rights Lawyer

Tsema is a human rights lawyer with experience in governance, grant-making, programme management, and gender. She is a policy expert who has worked with the government, business corporations, and NGO’s on the implementation of people-centred policies to protect citizens’ rights.

Tsema founded a law firm where she worked as a litigation lawyer doing pro bono work on access to justice. She has experience in actively strengthening grassroots activists to document and expose human rights abuses, as well as conducting community outreach and mobilisation. She works with government stakeholders at the parliamentary and executive levels on policy reforms and strengthening regulatory mechanisms for the protection of human rights.