A new press freedom report concludes that 2024 was the deadliest year for journalists around the world, driven largely by Israel’s ongoing attacks against Palestinian members of the media.
At least 124 journalists were killed internationally last year, 70% of which Israel is responsible for, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2024 Killed Report first obtained by HuffPost. That total surpasses CPJ’s previous record high of 113 killed in 2007, when the Iraq War made up nearly half the journalist casualties.
“The number of conflicts globally – whether political, criminal or military in nature – has doubled in the past five years, and this is reflected in the high number of deaths of journalists in nations such as Sudan, Pakistan and Myanmar,” the report said. “But the toll of conflict on the press is most glaring in the unprecedented number of journalists and media workers killed in the Israel-Gaza war, 85 in 2024, and 78 in 2023.”
The numbers are even higher when attributed to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, which recorded 102 journalists killed in 2023 and 91 in 2024. This does not include journalists who are imprisoned, nor those who are alive but wounded.
“The targeting of journalists’ families, the destruction of homes, and the use of live ammunition reflect a deliberate strategy to instill fear and silence those reporting the truth,” the syndicate said in its report last month. “These actions defy international conventions and norms, with no precedent for such systematic violence against journalists anywhere else in the world.”
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Force did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
The context around the disproportionate attacks on the press in Gaza includes that virtually all on-the-ground reporting came from local journalists, who try balancing survival and displacement with covering the war. Gaza journalists like Bisan Owda and Hind Khoudary have spoken about the difficulty in trying to report when there is no food, shelter or health care.
“They were living the war – which we’ve seen has been devastating for Gaza – at the same time they were reporting,” CPJ program director Carlos Martínez de la Serna told HuffPost, adding that Palestinians journalists would also often face smear campaigns by Israeli authorities, who would attempt to paint the press as terrorists.
“So we documented the cases of journalists being killed while they were directly reporting, but also when they were getting some rest near a hospital that was bombed. Getting some flour, and that was bombed. When they were displaced, when they were enduring all the circumstances of the civilian population,” he continued. “So them, as civilians, should be protected. And they haven’t been protected.”
Martínez de la Serna also highlighted the disproportionate killing of freelance journalists, who often do the same reporting with fewer resources and higher safety risk. Freelancers made up more than a third of all killings in 2024, and 31 cases of freelancers killed were Palestinians in Gaza.
“Many Gaza journalists became freelancers after their outlets were destroyed, their coverage proving crucial for global media outlets because Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering the Strip except on tightly controlled visits led by the military,” the CPJ report said.
While the press freedom and safety during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has alarmed the world, CPJ stressed that journalists everywhere are facing an increase in violence due to global conflict, political unrest and distrust of the media. Sudan has seen little international attention on its civil war that has killed thousands, including journalists.
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“Attacking journalists reverberates across the profession. Only one attack needs to be taken very seriously. Justice needs to be pursued and the attack needs to be condemned,” Martínez de la Serna said. “And the opposite is indulging in selective rhetoric that vilifies journalism when you disagree just with the outcome of that reporting or on anything else.
“That’s a threat that contributes to this environment that is in many countries around the world, and that is in the U.S. as well.”