Palestine has already become the country in the world where the most journalists have been murdered in the last five years, with 39 victims while practicing their profession, and surpasses Mexico, which registers 37 in the same period, according to the annual report published this Wednesday by (RSF).
As of December 1, a total of 54 journalists had been murdered worldwide while carrying out their work, and 30% of those deaths occurred in Gaza at the hands of Israeli forces.
With these figures, ahead of Pakistan (7), Bangladesh (5) and Mexico (5).
The Paris-based NGO detailed that a total of 155 Palestinian and Lebanese journalists have died at the hands of Israel during the Gaza conflict since its beginning in October 2023, of which at least 40 were killed for reporting on the conflict and the rest were circumstantial victims.
Israel has also become the “third largest prison for journalists in the world”, behind China and Burma, an RSF spokesperson, Elena García, told EFE.
As of December 1, 2024, a total of 54 journalists have been killed worldwide while working and Asia has become the second deadliest region in the world after the Middle East, with Pakistan (7) and Bangladesh (5) to the head.
The difficult political and social situation in Pakistan has led to an increase in attacks on journalists in that country, which becomes the second country in which the most journalists have died violently so far this year for practicing their profession.
In Bangladesh, the five fatalities were covering the July demonstrations over the establishment of a quota system considered discriminatory in the process of access to public employment, and which were harshly repressed by law enforcement.
Of the eight journalists murdered in America, Mexico is the country with the most deaths with five in 2024, one more than last year, followed by Colombia (2) and Honduras (1).
Conflict zones
57% of the murdered journalists were victims of an armed conflict, a record for the last five years, while other journalists died for reasons of local politics (8), organized crime (7) or repression of demonstrations (5).
RSF linked this increase in journalist deaths in wars to the escalation of war around the world and highlighted the dramatic situation for journalists in the Middle East, Iraq, Sudan, Burma and Ukraine.
The organization has accumulated four complaints before the International Criminal Court for war crimes by Israel against journalists covering the Gaza conflict and assures that they have received an acknowledgment of receipt from the prosecutor handling the case.
“We have asked that the crimes committed against journalists be included as war crimes in the investigation being carried out in Palestine,” RSF insisted.
Arrests and disappearances
Arrests of professionals have also increased this year, the number of which has reached 550, 7.2% more than in 2023, while 2 new journalists have been taken hostage. In total, there are now 55 hostages, of which 25 remain held by Daesh.
China has the largest number of imprisoned journalists, with a total of 124 (22.5% of the total), although the increase in arrests in 2024 is led by Russia (+8), which has 38, and Israel (+17) with 41, which becomes the third country with the most journalists detained behind Burma (61).
Almost a hundred journalists remain missing, more than 30% missing in Mexico and a total of 39 on the American continent.
This year four more journalists have disappeared: Fabiola Tercero in Nicaragua, Alain Traoré in Burkina Faso, Zhanna Kyselova in Russia and Hanin Gebran in Syria.
One of the reasons for these disappearances is the “impunity” and “fragility” of the protection mechanisms for journalists, says the organization, which especially asks Latin America to strengthen the legal frameworks that guarantee freedom of the press.
RSF has prepared this type of balance sheet annually since 1995, based on data collected between January 1 and December 1. The 2024 count includes professional and non-professional journalists, as well as other media workers.
