More than 1,700 media professionals have been killed in the past 20 years
A total of 54 journalists and two media collaborators have been killed, 550 imprisoned and 55 kidnapped in 2024, according to the annual report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which denounces “record numbers” and that “journalism pays an exorbitant human price in conflicts and oppressive regimes.”
Reporters Without Borders reveals in its latest report an “alarming escalation” of attacks against journalists, especially in conflict zones, where half of the murders of media professionals recorded this year are concentrated.
“Journalists do not die, they are killed; they are not in prison, they are locked up by regimes; they have not disappeared, they have been kidnapped. These crimes, often orchestrated by governments or armed groups, are an affront to international law and too often go unpunished. We must change the status quo and remind ourselves, as citizens, that it is for us, to inform ourselves, that journalists die. We must continue to report, denounce, investigate and ensure that justice is done. Fate must never triumph. Protecting those who inform us is protecting the truth,” said Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF.
Regarding the 54 journalists killed, RSF said that 31 were killed in conflict zones (Middle East, Iraq, Sudan, Burma and Ukraine), reaching a five-year high (57.4%). In addition, Gaza is the most dangerous region in the world for journalists, accounting for a third of those killed, “all killed by the Israeli army in the exercise of their profession,” according to the data available to RSF to date.
“Palestine is the most dangerous country in which to report and has recorded the highest number of murders of reporters worldwide in the last five years,” the organization warned, detailing that more than 145 journalists have been killed by Israel since October 2023, including at least 35 during or because of their work. RSF has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes committed against reporters by Israel.
As a result of the high number of journalists killed in Pakistan (7) and during demonstrations in Bangladesh (5), Asia remains, in 2024, the second region with the highest number of murders of media professionals. More than 1,700 information professionals have been killed worldwide in the last 20 years.
On the other hand, RSF has noted an increase in the number of journalists imprisoned in 2024 (+7.2%), due in particular to new arrests in Russia (+8%) and Israel (+17%). Israel is the country that has imprisoned the most journalists since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, making it the third largest prison in the world for the press.
SENTENCES THAT ADD UP TO MORE THAN 250 YEARS
The four largest prisons in the world are China (124 journalists imprisoned, 11 of them in Hong Kong), Burma (61), Israel (41) and Belarus (40), and they hold nearly half of the journalists imprisoned worldwide (550). “Imprisonment is a tool of repression, especially in the service of Russian aggression in Ukraine and the Israeli offensive in Gaza,” it said, adding that “Russia (38) uses its prisons to repress both Russian and Ukrainian independent voices (19)”, and that 72 journalists have been sentenced in 2024 to sentences totaling more than 250 years.
Regarding the 55 kidnapped journalists, 70 percent are in Syria. “Most of them were kidnapped by the Islamic State during the war, and ten years later, it remains extremely difficult, if not practically impossible, to obtain information about their whereabouts,” said the NGO, which believes that the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime “opens a window of hope for journalism”. Of the 55 media professionals currently held captive around the world, two were kidnapped in 2024 by the Houthis in Yemen.
A total of 95 journalists remain missing in 34 countries around the world, more than 25% of whom have disappeared in the last ten years. In addition, 28 have disappeared in the last decade: Mexico (5), Syria (3), Mali (3), Democratic Republic of Congo (2), Palestine (2) and Iraq (2). “These disappearances are often attributable to authoritarian or negligent governments and underline the urgent need to strengthen the protection of journalists and fight impunity,” it said.
Against this backdrop, RSF is calling on States to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006, this Convention has only been signed by 75 countries to date. Mexico accounts for more than 30% of cases of missing journalists and, in 2024, there were four new cases of enforced disappearance in Burkina Faso, Nicaragua, Russia and Syria.
