Reporters Without Borders released a report yesterday on journalists killed in 2024. It said 54 journalists were killed “on the job or in connection with their work” while over 1,700 had been killed in the past 20 years. 

Crucially, Reporters Without Borders said the Israeli armed forces were responsible “for a third” of the journalists killed in 2024. It said Gaza “became the most dangerous region in the world for journalists” this year where 18 journalists “perished under the bombs of Israeli armed forces”. Estimating “more than 145 journalists” killed by the Israeli army since October 2023, the report said Israel is “one of the world’s top five prisons for journalists”.

“Let us repeat: journalists don’t die – they’re killed. We must hold all those responsible for these murders to account. Starting with the Israeli armed forces who, since 7 October 2023, stopped hiding behind hollow investigations and now disguise their targeting of journalists as part of a fight against terrorism – discrediting journalists in addition to physically eliminating them,” the report said. 

Subsequently, an Israeli government spokesperson said, “We don’t accept these figures. We don’t believe they are correct.”

UNESCO estimates 68 killings globally, CPJ 75

Parallelly, UNESCO, a specialised agency of the United Nations, issued a press release yesterday saying at least 68 journalists were killed this year “in the line of duty”. It said over 60 percent of these killings “occurred in countries experiencing conflict” – the highest percentage in over a decade. 

Eighteen of these journalists were killed in Palestine while “multiple fatalities” were reported in countries like Ukraine, Columbia, Iraq, Lebanon, Myanmar and Sudan. 

“This follows an unsettling trend seen in 2023, with more journalists losing their lives in conflicts over the past two years than in any comparable period since 2016-2017,” the agency said. There’s also been a 42 percent increase in attacks on journalists reporting on environmental issues between 2019 and 2024.

On its methodology, UNESCO said cases are “excluded if deaths are deemed unrelated to the victims’ journalistic work”. That said, “dozens of cases remain under review”.

Additionally, at the time of publishing this story, the Committee to Protect Journalists calculated 75 journalists killed in 2024. It said 56 deaths occurred in Israel and occupied Palestinian territory. And the International Federation of Journalists reported 106 journalists and media staff killed in 2024, and at least 153 journalists and media workers killed in Gaza since October 2023.

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