Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says Israel was responsible for nearly half of all journalists killed globally in 2025, with 29 Palestinian reporters slain in Gaza alone.
In its annual report released Tuesday, the Paris-based press freedom organisation recorded 67 journalist deaths worldwide between December 2024 and December 2025, a slight increase from 66 in the previous year.
RSF said Israeli forces were responsible for 43 percent of the fatalities, describing the country as “the worst enemy of journalists” during the period under review.
The deadliest single incident cited in the report was an August 25 “double-tap” strike on a hospital in southern Gaza, which killed five journalists, including two working with Reuters and the Associated Press.
RSF stated that nearly 220 journalists have been killed since the Gaza war began in October 2023, following the Hamas attack on Israel—making Israel the world’s leading killer of journalists for three consecutive years. The Israeli military maintains that its operations target Hamas militants.
Foreign journalists have remained largely barred from independently entering Gaza, except on closely managed trips organised by the Israeli military, despite repeated calls from media and rights groups for unrestricted access.
The report also named Mexico as one of the deadliest countries for media workers in 2025, recording nine journalist killings despite President Claudia Sheinbaum’s pledges to improve protections. Sudan and war-torn Ukraine were also highlighted as high-risk environments, with four and three journalist deaths respectively.
Although the 2025 global death toll remained well below the peak of 142 recorded in 2012 during the Syrian conflict, RSF said attacks on journalists are increasingly targeted.
“These are not stray bullets,” RSF editorial director Anne Bocandé told AFP. “This is deliberate targeting of journalists because they inform the world about what’s happening on the ground.”
RSF also reported a rise in media repression, listing China (121), Russia (48) and Myanmar (47) as the countries with the highest numbers of detained journalists. As of December 1, a total of 503 journalists were imprisoned worldwide. UNESCO, which uses a different methodology, counted 91 journalist deaths in 2025.
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