his is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

55 journalists killed in 2021, impunity still widespread: UNESCO

Fifty-five journalists and media professionals were killed last year, the UN said on Thursday, adding that nearly nine in 10 killings since 2006 are still unresolved.

Impunity is “alarmingly widespread”, said the UN scientific, education and cultural organisation, UNESCO.

Although the number of victims is the lowest in a decade, UNESCO pointed to the many dangers that reporters face.

These include high rates of imprisonment, physical attack, intimidation and harassment, including when covering protests.

Women journalists also face “a shocking prevalence” of online abuse linked to their work, UNESCO said.

Two-thirds of the victims died in countries not in the grip of armed conflict, which the agency said highlighted the continued dangers faced by journalists in their daily reporting.

Here’s UNESCO’s Clare O’Hagan:

“As our Director-General Audrey Azoulay said, once again in 2021, far too many journalists paid the ultimate price to bring truth to light. Right now, the world needs independent, factual information more than ever. We must do more to ensure that those who work tirelessly to provide this can do so without fear.”

Most deaths took place in just two regions: Asia-Pacific - with 23 killings - and Latin America and the Caribbean, with 14.

Cambodia: Arrests of strikers may breach human rights law, say experts

The arrest and detention of more than two dozen union leaders and activists representing striking casino workers in Cambodia, has been met with concern by UN-appointed independent experts.

Video footage showed many arrests being conducted in a violent way, which could contravene freedoms of association, assembly and expression, said the rights experts, including Vitit Muntarbhorn, UN Special Rapporteur on Cambodia.

He and three other experts appointed by the Human Rights Council explained that the strike began on 31 December, in response to the dismissal of 365 staff at Naga World casino and resort.

They’d been in negotiations with their employer, the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training and Phnom Penh Municipal authorities.

So far, seven women and two men have been charged with “incitement to commit a felony” under the Cambodian Penal Code and remain in custody, while the others have been released.

These are the same provisions that have been used to prosecute human rights defenders in the country, the rights experts said on Wednesday, warning that the arrests appeared to be “an escalation in tactics” by security forces.

2021 food prices ‘sharply higher’ than 2020 - FAO

As inflation pushes up grocery shopping costs across the world, new UN data released on Thursday confirmed that average prices in 2021 were a massive 28 per cent higher than the previous 12 months.

In its latest update, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, said that there was “little room for optimism” that prices might stabilise this year, because of high input costs, COVID-19 and “ever more uncertain climatic conditions”.

The agency’s Food Price Index, which tracks changes in the international prices of commonly-traded foods, showed that cereals reached their highest level since 2012.

Other essentials, like cooking oil, increased more than 65 per cent compared with 2020, and sugar rose almost 30 per cent over the same period – which is its highest level since 2016.

Over the course of 2021, meat prices were around 13 per cent higher than in 2020, while dairy products averaged nearly 17 per cent higher than the previous 12 months.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.