December 12, 2024, 4:35pm
Press freedom NGO Reporters Without Borders released their 2024 round-up today and found that Israel’s genocidal assault made Palestine the deadliest place in the world to be a journalist this year, which they called “an unprecedented massacre.”
RSF report found an “alarming intensification of attacks on journalists” around the world, but found that Palestine bore the brunt of the suffering and death:
Gaza stands out as the most dangerous region in the world, with the highest number of journalists murdered in connection with their work in the last five years. Since October 2023, over 145 journalists have been killed by the Israeli army, including at least 35 whose deaths were linked to their journalism.
RSF, which “act[s] for the freedom, pluralism and independence of journalism and defend[s] those who embody these ideals,” also found that the Israeli armed forces killed nearly a third of all the journalists who were killed on the job in 2024.
In response, RSF has filed complaints with the ICC for ”war crimes committed against journalists by the Israeli army.” They have also recently called for the prosecution of Bashar al-Assad and have condemned the Netanyahu government’s attacks on press freedom.
Around the world, the number of journalists who have been imprisoned or detained also increased since last year, to a high of 550 people. Reporters Without Borders attribute this to a rise in new detentions in Russia and Israel, where 8 and 17 journalists were locked up in 2024, respectively. Half of the world’s imprisoned journalists are currently in the jails of four countries: 124 in China, including 11 in Hong Kong, 61 in Myanmar, 41 in Israel, and 40 in Belarus.
Part of the increase in deaths seems to be related to a spike in armed conflict around the world, and RSF found that the number of journalists killed in conflict zones reached a five-year high in 2024. Behind Palestine, Asia was the second most dangerous region for journalists: “Due to the large number of journalists killed in Pakistan (seven) and the protests that rocked Bangladesh (five), Asia remained the region with the second-highest number of killed media workers.”
A summary of the report and the full text are available on the Reporters Without Borders website. I wish — though I’m far from optimistic — that 2025 will be safer for those who write and report.
