The Committee to Protect Journalists said 2024 was the most dangerous year yet for journalists, with 124 media workers killed.
A record number of journalists were killed in 2024, with Israel responsible for more than two-thirds of those deaths, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said in its annual report.
Announcing its findings on Wednesday, the CPJ said at least 124 journalists were killed in 18 countries last year, in what was the deadliest year for media workers since the committee began keeping records more than three decades ago.
The previous deadliest year for media workers was 2007, when 113 journalists were killed, with almost half of those due to the Iraq war, the press freedom group said.
“Today is the most dangerous time to be a journalist in CPJ’s history,” the committee’s chief Jodie Ginsberg said in the statement.
“The war in Gaza is unprecedented in its impact on journalists and demonstrates a major deterioration in global norms on protecting journalists in conflict zones, but it is far from the only place journalists are in danger,” she said.
At least 85 journalists died throughout 2024 at the hands of the Israeli military during Israel’s war on Gaza, the CPJ said, with 82 of those who were killed being Palestinians.
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The advocacy group also accused Israel of attempting to stifle investigations into the killings, shift blame onto journalists for their own deaths, and ignoring its duty to hold its own military personnel accountable for the killings of so many media workers.
The CPJ named Sudan and Pakistan as the joint second most deadly countries for media workers last year, with six journalists killed in each.
It also said at least 24 journalists were deliberately killed because of their work, in what it described as an “alarming rise in the number of targeted killings”.
The CPJ said 10 journalists were “murdered” by the Israeli military in Gaza and Lebanon, while the 14 other journalists were assassinated in Haiti, Mexico, Pakistan, Myanmar, Mozambique, India, Iraq, and Sudan.
The group said that freelance journalists accounted for 43 deaths – more than 35 percent of last year’s total – with 31 of those cases being Palestinians reporting from Gaza.
“International media continue to be barred from reporting from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, except for rare and escorted trips arranged by the Israeli military,” the CPJ said, highlighting the essential work of freelancers in the besieged enclave.
“CPJ has repeatedly advocated for Israel and Egypt to open access, and reiterates that call as part of the ongoing ceasefire,” it added.
The Israeli military has killed several Al Jazeera journalists covering the war in Gaza since October 2023.
Among those killed were Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi, who died on July 31, 2024, when Israeli forces bombed their car in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City.
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Israeli authorities denied deliberately targeting the pair, as well as other journalists in Gaza.
In a statement, Al Jazeera Media Network labelled the killings a “targeted assassination” and pledged to “pursue all legal actions to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes”.
Israel’s attacks on Palestinian journalists have also continued into 2025, with reporter Ahmad al-Shayah among six killed in a drone strike on a charity facility in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on January 15.
