The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has launched new Guidelines for Forensic Professionals on Cases of Crimes Against Journalists, calling for a more scientific, integrated, and collaborative approach to investigating attacks on journalists in order to promote freedom of expression and effectively combat the persistent problem of impunity.
The publication, developed in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in Australia, and in cooperation with the International Association of Forensic Sciences (IAFS), is intended to strengthen the capacity of forensic practitioners, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and other criminal justice actors to investigate crimes against journalists more effectively.
Launched at the 24th Triennial Meeting of the International Association of Forensic Sciences, which took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, from May 25 to 30, 2026, the document seeks to ensure that forensic science plays a central role in identifying perpetrators, preserving evidence, and supporting successful prosecutions in cases of crimes against journalists.
The launch was preceded by a workshop aimed at raising awareness among forensic professionals about UNESCO’s mandate on the safety of journalists, introducing the Guidelines as a framework for handling cases against journalists, and presenting case studies to work through practical examples of investigating crimes against journalists.
Ms Mariya Gabriel, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, said at the event: “While this persistent impunity may be due to fear and a lack of commitment to investigate such crimes, insufficient technical expertise in handling complex cases contributes significantly to this challenge. As crimes against journalists become increasingly sophisticated, the role of forensic sciences has never been more critical in ensuring effective investigations into human rights violations.”
For Prof. Claude Roux, Director of the Centre for Forensic Science at UTS and one of the authors of the Guidelines,” At a time when facts are under pressure, these Guidelines are an important reminder of the role forensic sciences professionals must play in supporting accountability and justice, ensuring that our practice remains rigorous, transparent, built on scientific principles, and contributing to a more fair and informed society.”
The Guidelines are designed to provide the necessary forensic approaches, tools, processes, and protocols for the investigation of unlawful deaths of journalists to ensure justice, accountability, and the fight against impunity.
Based on the latest advances in forensic science and technology, the Guidelines provide a step-by-step roadmap for the detection, preservation, examination, documentation, interpretation, and presentation of forensic evidence in support of investigations and prosecutions.
They also outline the complementary roles of forensic professionals, law enforcement officers, investigators, and prosecutors, underscoring the importance of coordinated, evidence-based action in the fight against impunity for crimes against journalists.
Prof. Yanko Kolev, President of the International Association of Forensic Sciences, said of the document: “These Guidelines reaffirm the essential role of forensic science in transforming traces into truth, and truth into justice. For IAFS, supporting this work is part of its broader mission to advance forensic sciences in the service of society, human rights, and humanitarian values. Crimes against journalists are not only attacks on individuals; they are attacks on the public’s right to know. The forensic community stands ready to work with UNESCO and all partners to strengthen accountability, protect freedom of expression, and help ensure that such crimes do not remain unpunished.”
UNESCO noted that although considerable attention has been devoted in recent years to improving the safety of journalists and strengthening legal and institutional responses to attacks against them, comparatively little guidance has been available for forensic professionals whose work is often critical to securing justice.
The guidelines are designed to fill that gap by adapting established forensic science principles to the specific circumstances surrounding crimes committed against journalists.
The publication underscores that forensic evidence is often decisive in resolving crimes against journalists because traces left behind at crime scenes can reveal the identity of perpetrators, reconstruct events, establish links between related attacks, and corroborate witness testimony, adding that the quality of forensic investigations frequently determines whether perpetrators are brought to justice or remain unpunished.
According to the guidelines, forensic investigations involving journalists require heightened awareness of the victim’s professional activities, previous threats, digital footprint, and the possibility that attacks may be linked to their reporting.
Investigators are therefore encouraged to consider not only physical evidence but also digital traces, including threatening emails, text messages, social media activity, geolocation data, surveillance footage, and electronic devices that may reveal motives, identify suspects, or demonstrate patterns of harassment.
The guidance emphasises that forensic science should be viewed as a continuous process beginning at the crime scene and extending through laboratory analysis, interpretation, and reporting.
It highlights the importance of preserving the integrity of evidence through rigorous chain-of-custody procedures and recommends seven essential benchmarks for processing crime scenes, including initial assessment, scene control, examination, interpretation, documentation, evidence collection, and case management.
A central recommendation is the adoption of a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to forensic investigations.
Rather than allowing individual forensic disciplines to work independently, the guidelines advocate for the use of forensic triage to coordinate analyses across multiple disciplines from the outset of an investigation.
Such collaboration, UNESCO said, enables investigators to ask the right questions early, prioritise the most probative evidence, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of criminal investigations.
In the light of the changing nature of threats facing journalists, the publication devotes a lot of attention to digital attacks, including cyberstalking, coordinated online harassment, AI-generated sexually explicit images, disinformation campaigns, and electronic intimidation.
It advises forensic professionals to preserve and analyse digital evidence with the same rigour applied to physical evidence, noting that online attacks frequently form part of broader campaigns that escalate into physical violence.
To illustrate best practice, the guidelines include a series of hypothetical case studies based on real-world situations involving murder, cyberstalking, assault, and abduction of journalists.
The scenarios demonstrate how DNA analysis, fingerprints, closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage, digital communications, geolocation records, and other forensic evidence can be combined to reconstruct criminal events, identify suspects, and establish links between multiple attacks against the same journalist.
The publication also stresses the importance of internationally recognised quality standards for forensic laboratories and scientific reporting, and encourages forensic service providers to operate in accordance with recognised accreditation frameworks, including ISO/IEC 17025, and emphasises peer review, scientific validation, and clear reporting to ensure that forensic findings can withstand judicial scrutiny.
UNESCO argued that strengthening forensic investigations is an essential component of global efforts to end impunity for crimes against journalists, pointing out that by improving the detection, preservation, and interpretation of evidence and ensuring that investigators understand the particular risks associated with journalism, the guidelines can help advance the search for truth and justice while reinforcing freedom of expression and the public’s right to information.
According to UNESCO’s global data, over 1,860 journalists have been killed between 1993 and 2026, with close to 9 out of 10 cases remaining judicially unresolved between 2006 and 2023, resulting in an 85 percent impunity rate.
The figures are confirmed by the UNESCO Director-General’s Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity. The United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity seeks to bring multiple stakeholders together to combat this issue.
The guidelines were authored by Professor Claude Roux of the UTS and immediate past President of the International Association of Forensic Sciences, as well as Adjunct Professor Alastair Ross, former Director of the National Institute of Forensic Science at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. They were produced under the editorial coordination of UNESCO’s Section on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists with support from the Multi-Donor Programme on Freedom of Expression and the Safety of Journalists.
