"2025, a Deadly Year for Journalists"/ Report: 43% Killed in Gaza, at Risk in Their Home Countries

2025-12-09 11:34:00, Aktualitet CNA

"2025, a Deadly Year for Journalists"/ Report: 43% Killed in Gaza, at

The report published by Reporters Without Borders shares an alarming figure, making 2025 a deadly year for journalists.

According to the report, almost half (43%) of journalists killed in the past 12 months were killed in Gaza by Israeli armed forces. In Ukraine, the Russian military continues to target foreign and Ukrainian journalists. Sudan has also emerged as an exceptionally deadly war zone for news professionals.

In Mexico, organized crime groups are responsible for the alarming increase in the murders of journalists first reported in 2025. This year has been the deadliest in the last three years - at least - and Mexico is the second most dangerous country in the world for journalists, with nine killed. The trend has spread as Latin America has become more "Mexicanized", accounting for 24% of the journalists killed in the world.

"A year after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime, many of the journalists arrested or captured under his rule have still not been found, making Syria the country with the highest number of missing news professionals - over a quarter of the world's total. "This is where the hatred of journalists leads us! It led to the deaths of 67 journalists this year - not by chance, and they were not collateral victims. They were killed, they were targeted for their work. It is perfectly legitimate to criticize the media - criticism should serve as a catalyst for change that ensures the survival of a free press, a public good. But it should never turn into hatred of journalists, which is largely born of - or deliberately fueled by - the tactics of armed forces and criminal organizations. This is where impunity for these crimes leads us: the failure of international organizations to ensure the right of journalists to protection in armed conflicts is the consequence of a global decline in the courage of governments, which should implement protective public policies. Key witnesses of history, journalists have gradually become collateral victims, inconvenient eyewitnesses, bargaining chips, chess pieces in diplomatic games, women to be 'eliminated'. We must be wary of erroneous notions about journalists: no one gives their life for journalism - it is taken from them; journalists do not simply die - they are murdered,” emphasizes Thibaut Bruttin, Director General of RSF.

Journalists are most at risk within their own countries. Only two foreign journalists were killed this year: French photojournalist Antoni Lallican, killed by a Russian drone strike in Ukraine, and Salvadoran journalist Javier Hércules, killed in Honduras, where he had lived for more than a decade. All the other journalists killed reported news in their own countries.

503 journalists are currently detained worldwide. The world's largest prison for journalists is still China (121), with Russia (48) now in second place, imprisoning more foreign journalists than any other country: 26 Ukrainians. Myanmar (47) comes in third./CNA