Journalists are enduring one of the most perilous periods in the history of their profession. On average, one is being killed every day in Gaza. Reporters Without Borders recently revealed that 45 journalists were killed around the world in 2023 in direct connection with their reporting.

Every courageous voice that is extinguished in pursuit of the truth is a painful reminder for our family. Six years ago, our son Christopher Allen was killed while reporting on the civil conflict in South Sudan. Dec. 23 would have been his 33rd birthday. And to this day, we are still seeking justice.

Chris grew up in a comfortable Philadelphia suburb but never embraced the coziness of its lifestyle. He was passionate about telling stories, especially those that are often overlooked. These are inevitably some of the hardest stories to tell, but also the most vital. That passion sent him to Ukraine in 2014, where he caught the journalism bug and threw himself into freelance reporting.

His experience in Ukraine’s Donbas region taught him what every seasoned investigative reporter knows: there is simply no substitute for being on the ground and close to a story. Only then can you appreciate the nuanced intersections of religion, ethnicity, economics and culture that drive a major conflict like the one that unfolded between Russia and Ukraine in 2014, and which led directly to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In 2017, Chris went to South Sudan to embed with the People’s Liberation Army and report on another complex conflict. He went there to help the rest of the world understand a war to which it was paying far too little attention. After only three weeks in the country, Chris was targeted and killed by South Sudanese government forces.

South Sudan’s government has not only failed to take responsibility for killing our son, it has gone out of its way to defame him and insult his memory. They justified his killing by calling him a “white rebel” as recently as last year, on World Press Freedom Day of all days. They used his killing as a warning to other journalists who dared cover the conflict independently. They posted images of his naked body to social media, which constitutes a war crime. And they have ignored our pleas for justice.

After more than six years, we still don’t know the exact circumstances that led to Chris’s death because there has been no independent investigation. Earlier this year, the South Sudanese government announced that it would finally be launching its own investigation. Unfortunately, it’s full of red flags.

To start with, at no point has our family ever been officially informed or approached about the investigation. We were left to discover the announcement on a government Facebook page and in the media reporting that followed. Secondly, the impartiality of the investigating committee is questionable, as its membership is dominated by the South Sudanese army, which is itself implicated in Chris’s killing. The committee also set itself an impossibly short time frame to conclude its investigation. The ad hoc nature of the investigation itself is also problematic. The U.N. has raised the alarm about these types of committees because they lack the authority and the experience to seriously tackle these cases and instead serve to undermine any other investigation.

We are thus convinced that this investigation is a sham meant to wipe the government’s hands clean as it enters a crucial election year in 2024. That’s why we are renewing our call on President Biden: the U.S. government must launch its own independent investigation into the illegal killing of one of its own citizens by South Sudanese government forces.

This year at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, President Biden proclaimed that “journalism is not a crime,” and boldly reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to the values of press freedom worldwide. Unfortunately, we’re not the only family of a targeted journalist still hoping he will live up to those words.

Two American reporters, Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, are locked up in Russia for the crime of journalism. Austin Tice has remained captive in Syria for over 11 years. The president has laudably made their return a “top priority” and rightfully highlighted their courage in “shedding a light on darkness.” But what about justice for our son, who paid the ultimate price for trying to shed light on a dark conflict the world all too often ignores?

The U.S. government must seek justice for our son. We say this, of course, as grieving parents who miss our son every day. But we also say this as citizens who appreciate and value independent journalism. When the United States fails to uphold its own values and permits impunity for the most heinous crimes against journalists, it only makes the world more dangerous for those who seek to shed a light on darkness for the rest of us.

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