Wars in the Middle East were responsible for 58% of all journalists killed this year
One hundred and twenty-two journalists and media workers were murdered in 2024, one of the “deadliest” years for the profession, mainly due to the situation in the Middle East, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced this Tuesday.
On December 10, a first assessment made by the IFJ on the occasion of International Human Rights Day had shown that 104 journalists had died this year.
This list was joined mainly by the deaths of professionals in the Middle East and the Arab world, where the wars in Gaza and Lebanon were responsible for 58% of all journalists killed in 2024.
Specifically, 64 Palestinian media professionals, six Lebanese and one Syrian were murdered.
Since the start of the war in the Middle East, on October 7, 2023, the number of Palestinian journalists killed has risen to 147, making this country “one of the most dangerous in the history of modern journalism”, says the IFJ.
In this regard, IFJ Secretary-General Anthony Bellanger urged United Nations (UN) Member States to “take measures to ensure the adoption of a binding convention on the safety of journalists”.
“This convention would aim to put an end to the deaths and injuries to journalists that unfortunately occur every year,” Bellanger added.
In Asia and the Pacific, the IJF condemned the murder of seven professionals in Pakistan, five in Bangladesh, three in India, one in Cambodia and another in the Philippines.
Furthermore, the military regime in Myanmar continues to persecute journalists (three of them were killed this year), while Indonesia and Kazakhstan have recorded one death each.
In 2024, a dozen journalists were killed in Africa, mainly in Sudan, where six lost their lives as a result of the generals’ war, which was particularly deadly.
Furthermore, two Somali journalists, one Chadian and one from the Democratic Republic of Congo died this year.
In the Americas, the IFJ counted nine deaths, including five Mexicans, two Colombians and two Haitians.
Journalists in the region have suffered threats, intimidation, kidnappings and murders, mainly because of their reports on drug trafficking, which has plagued Mexico for more than two decades.
In Europe, the war in Ukraine claimed the lives of four journalists this year, compared to 13 in 2022 and four in 2023, although this continues to be the safest continent in the world for the sector.
To date, the IFJ counts 516 journalists in prison, a sharp increase compared to 427 in 2023 and 375 in 2022.
With 135 journalists detained, China remains the world’s largest prison for media professionals, ahead of Israel (59 Palestinian journalists) and Myanmar (44).
In the Asia-Pacific region alone, there are 254 journalists in prison, ahead of Europe as a whole, with 142, the Middle East and the Arab world, with 102, Africa, with 17, and Latin America, with one.
