‘2024 deadliest year for journalists, nearly 70% killed by Israel,’ says global media watchdog

The year 2024 was the deadliest one for journalists and media workers in over three decades, with at least 124 of them having been killed, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. Of these, 85, or nearly 70% of them, were Palestinians killed by Israel while reporting on the war in Gaza.

More journalists were killed in 2024 than in any other year since the Committee to Protect Journalists began collecting data more than three decades ago, the New York-based global media watchdog said in its annual report released on Wednesday.

The organisation, which advocates for press freedom, has kept records on the killings of journalists since 1992.

The increase in killings, which saw a 22% rise from 2023, reflected “surging levels of international conflict, political unrest and criminality worldwide”, the organisation said.

The report noted the number of conflicts globally – whether political, criminal, or military in nature – had doubled in the past five years. “This is reflected in the high number of deaths of journalists in nations such as Sudan, Pakistan and Myanmar,” it said.

However, the organisation said that the toll of conflict on the press was most glaring in the number of journalists and media workers killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, which saw an increase from 78...

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