RICHNESS the WRITER

A record total of 533 journalists are currently detained worldwide, according to the annual round-up of violence and abuses against journalists published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The number of those killed has increased again this year – to 57– while 65 journalists are being held hostage and 49 are missing. Last year’s record has been broken again. The total of 533 journalists being held in connection with their work on 1 December was 13.4% higher than last year’s figure. RSF has also never previously seen so many women journalists in detention. A total of 78 are currently held, a record-breaking rise of nearly 30% compared to 2021. Women now account for nearly 15% of detained journalists, compared to fewer than 7% five years ago.  China, where censorship and surveillance have reached extreme levels,  continues to be the world’s biggest jailer of journalists, with a total of 110 currently being held. They include Huang Xueqin , a freelance journalist who covered cor...

 A message from Ms Audrey Azoulay - Director-General of UNESCO During the last two years of COVID-19, progress against HIV pandemic has stalled. According to UNAIDS, 38.4 million people globally were living with HIV in 2012. There were more than half a million AIDS - related deaths and 1.5 million new infections.  Some 49% of these new infections were among  women and girls. In Sub-Saharan Africa, girls accounted for six in seven new HIV infections among adolescents aged between 15 and 19. As these statistics underline, stark inequities hamper the fight against HIV: young people are still disproportionately at risk, with young women and girls particularly vulnerable to infections due to limited access to education and health information and services.  In other words, the international community still  has  wide  gaps  to close  if  we  want  to  realize our vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AI...