The International Press Institute (IPI), through its Africa programme, has responded to a call for input for the upcoming thematic report of the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. IPI encouraged the Special Rapporteur to recognise protecting environmental journalists, and access to information, as integral to the broader protection of environmental human rights defenders and to the effective realisation of that right.
IPI based its submission on its monitoring and research work on the situation of climate and environmental journalists in Africa. It detailed the specific and distinct attacks experienced by environmental journalists, including physical attacks, threats, arrest and detention, and judicial harassment. he submission also covered progressive normative developments at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, such as Resolution 657 of 2026 on access to information and the right to a healthy environment.
To States, IPI recommended the following:
- Recognise the essential role of environmental journalists in environmental protection, accountability, and the public’s right to know.
- Prevent and protect against attacks on environmental journalists, including physical and online threats, harassment, surveillance and arbitrary detention, and ensure access to effective protection mechanisms.
- End impunity by promptly, independently and effectively investigating attacks and threats, including those involving state and private actors.
- Prevent Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and legal harassment through comprehensive anti-SLAPP legislation, early dismissal mechanisms, and effective remedies.
- Guarantee access to environmental information, including proactive disclosure before, during, and after environmental emergencies, access to affected sites, and protection of confidential journalistic sources.
- Decriminalise defamation and ensure civil remedies are proportionate and cannot be used to suppress public-interest environmental reporting.
- End the misuse of restrictive legislation —including cybercrime, national security, public-order and false-information laws —to silence legitimate environmental journalism.