August 30 marks the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Enforced disappearances are the arrest or abduction of a person by or on behalf of the state, followed by that same authorities’ refusal to acknowledge it. The move is used as a means to silence opposition and to spread terror.
The following chart looks specifically at the number of media workers that have disappeared over the past 24 years. According to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) database, at least 217 media workers have disappeared since the year 2000. This includes those who are victims of enforced disappearance as well as those who have disappeared at the hands of non-state related groups.
Mexico is the country from which the highest number of media professionals have disappeared in this time frame, counting 37 in total. Of these, 31 are listed as “ongoing” cases. According to RSF, an additional 152 media professionals have been verified as killed in Mexico between 2000 and 2024, three of whom died in 2024.
With 35 cases, Syria is the country with the second highest number of media professionals who have disappeared worldwide between 2000 and 2024. While the majority of these (26) disappeared between 2011 and 2014, five people were recorded as having disappeared as recently as 2019. According to estimates of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, there have been at least 65,000 victims of enforced disappearances in Syria since 2011.
Commenting on the global pattern of disappearances, RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said: “China invented the ‘enforced vacation,’ Syria developed mass disappearances and Africa copied South America, which sadly pioneered enforced disappearance.”
“Instead of decreasing, this barbaric practice is diversifying, spreading all over the world and creating more and more victims among journalists and bloggers every year. We deplore the impunity usually enjoyed by the perpetrators of these crimes and the lack of commitment by democratic governments to bring them to an end.”
