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RSF’s 2024 Round-up: journalism suffers exorbitant human cost due to conflicts and repressive regimes
The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2024 Round-up reveals an alarming intensification of attacks on journalists — especially in conflict zones, where over half of the news professionals who lost their lives this year perished. 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. What’s more, 550 journalists are currently imprisoned worldwide, a 7% increase from last year. This violence — often perpetrated by governments and armed groups with total impunity — needs an immediate response. RSF calls for urgent action to protect journalists and journalism.
“Journalists do not die, they are killed; they are not in prison, regimes lock them up; they do not disappear, they are kidnapped. These crimes — often orchestrated by governments and armed groups with total impunity — violate international law and too often go unpunished. We need to get things moving, to remind ourselves as citizens that journalists are dying for us, to keep us informed. We must continue to count, name, condemn, investigate, and ensure that justice is served. Fatalism should never win. Protecting those who inform us is protecting the truth.
Thibaut Bruttin
RSF’s Director General
A third of the journalists killed in 2024 were slain by the Israeli armed forces
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A record 54 journalists killed, including 31 in conflict zones Around the world, the number of journalists killed for covering conflict zones — in Iraq, Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine, and the region affected by the war in Gaza — has reached a five-year high (57.4%).
- Gaza: the world's most dangerous region for journalists In 2024, the Gaza Strip accounted for nearly 30% of journalists killed on the job, according to RSF’s latest information. They were killed by the Israeli army.
- Palestine is the most dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years. More than 145 journalists have been killed in Palestine since October 2023, including at least 35 targeted in the line of duty, according to our latest information.
- RSF continues to investigate these deaths to identify and condemn the deliberate targeting of media workers, and has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes committed against journalists.
- Asia: 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.
550 journalists detained
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Locked-up journalists are concentrated in four countries
The world's four largest prisons — China (124, including 11 in Hong Kong), Myanmar (61), Israel (41) and Belarus (40) — hold almost half of the world's detained journalists. -
250 years in prison: the combined sentence of journalists around the world
Imprisonment is weaponised to repress journalism, especially in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Russia (38) uses its prisons as a means to repress independent Russian and Ukrainian reporters (19).
55 journalists held hostage
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70% of hostages are in Syria.
Most of them were kidnapped by the Islamic State during the war and, ten years later, it is still extremely difficult — if not virtually impossible — to obtain information on their fate and whereabouts. The collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime has opened a window of hope. -
Yemen: the only country with new hostages in 2024
Of the 55 media workers currently held hostage worldwide, 2 were kidnapped in 2024, by the Houthis in Yemen. -
Mali: the only country with new hostages in 2023
Director Saleck Ag Jiddou and host Moustapha Koné of Radio Coton were kidnapped on 7 November 2023 by an armed group. The demanded ransom is now 4 million CFA francs (around 6,150 euros).
95 missing journalists
RSF's online barometer is constantly updated by our zone managers and correspondents with the names of journalists who have been subject to abuse (killed, detained, held hostage, missing).