Worldwide, 104 journalists and media workers were killed in 2024 – and more than half of them were in Palestine.
Journalists there have faced death more than their colleagues in any other country, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
Research by the IFJ, a non-partisan organization representing the rights of media workers, found that 55 journalists were killed in Palestine this year, compared with 49 in the rest of the world. Their figures do not include journalists who have been arrested (75 Palestinian journalists have been imprisoned since October 2023, and just 30 of them have been released) nor does it include those who are injured (approximately 49) or missing (at least two).
Since Israel has prohibited the entry of foreign journalists into Gaza, only Palestinians are able to report on violence and human rights abuses committed in the territory.
For those Palestinian journalists who have not been killed by the Israeli military, working conditions are still near-impossible. Over 90% said they had lost equipment essential for reporting and that they were without essential protective gear such as helmets according to a survey by ARIJ, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism.
The same survey also found that they are attempting to continue working professionally after enormous personal losses. Almost 100% of the journalists surveyed said they had been forced from their homes, nearly 90% said that their homes had been destroyed and more than one in five journalists reported losing at least one family member due to Israel’s bombing and aid restrictions.
Related: Toys, spices, sewing machines: the items Israel banned from entering Gaza
All of these numbers are likely to be underestimates since accurate fatality data is almost impossible in Palestine. While sources agree that Palestine is the most dangerous place to work, Reporters Without Borders provides a lower number, estimating that 54 journalists were killed worldwide in 2024. This is largely due to a much narrower definition of journalist killings that only includes those “proven to be directly related to their professional activity”.
Even with that narrower definition, the organization found that “more than 155 journalists have been killed by the Israeli army since October 2023 in Gaza and Lebanon, an unprecedented massacre. RSF has sufficient evidence that at least 40 of them were deliberately targeted for their journalism.” The Committee to Protect Journalists, which also makes a distinction about targeting, found that the motive was confirmed for 63 killings, although they treat Israel and Occupied Palestinian territories as one place in their dataset.
After Palestine, the most dangerous places to be a journalist in 2024 were Lebanon and Pakistan (6 journalists killed in each country), Sudan, Bangladesh and Mexico (5 killed in each) as well as Ukraine (4 journalists killed).
