In 2024, a record number of journalists was killed Committee on Defense Journalists said In a report published on Wednesday.
At least 124 journalists and media workers died around the world, and about two-thirds of them were Palestinians who were killed by Israel during his War against Hamas In Gaza, CPJ said.
The previous record was 113 journalists killed in 2007 during the Iraq war.
In other countries, including Sudan, Pakistan, Mexico and Syria, several cases of journalists who died last year were also killed.
CPJ is considering a journalist or media worker who covered the news or commented on public affairs in any environment. To include in your list, a person's death was due to work. Death can be intentional or accidental, for example, when a journalist is killed in the conflict zone. The journalist's death will not be enabled if there is evidence that they “incited violence with a rapid effect or directly involved in Participants of the fighting In an armed conflict during death, ”CPJ said.
CPJ states that only confirmed cases include confirmed cases, that is, he found that a journalist was killed in their work; It states that this considers all cases of war as it is confirmed.
Increasing global conflict leads to a record of death
Of the 124 journalists who died in 2024, the CPJ report said 82 were killed amid War in gas and three were killed in LebanonWhere Israel fought with Hezbollah. At least in 10 cases, CPJ states that the investigation determined that they were “intentionally aimed”. The group states that it continues to investigate whether there may be at least 20 other cases.
Thirty -one of the journalists killed in the gas were Palestinian freelancers Who said the CPJ “entered to fill the information invalid after numerous news stopped working in the territory.
CBS News appealed to Israeli officials to comment on the report. In A Statement ReutersIsraeli defense forces have stated that they are taking measures to mitigate the damage to civilians and journalists, and said, “IDF will never be intentionally focused on journalists.”
Earlier IDF denied allegations of journalists, Telling “60 minutes” In his statement last month: “IDF directs its strikes only to military purposes and military operatives, and not aimed at civilians and civilians, including media organizations and journalists.”
Israeli military personnel continued to claim that the “Teroral Operatives” doubled as journalists, and therefore could become “legal military goals”, including some who work for al -Jazeera. Qatari network strongly denied this statement.
The CPJ said CPJ is coming against the background of rising conflicts. Other journalist killings in 2024 occurred in more than a dozen countries, including Sudan, Pakistan and Mexico. Sudan and Pakistan saw six journalists' killings in each, and there were five in Mexico. Four journalists were killed in Syria. Three were killed in Myanmar, where underground journalists are “increasingly regarded as members of the enemy,” CPJ reports. Three more journalists were recorded in IraqNoting the first death of the journalist since 2020. Two journalists were killed on HaitiWhere “the gangs are now openly responsible for the murder of journalists,” the CPJ said.
CPJ said that the journalists were found intentionally killed, often trying to “bury the evidence of murder, switch guilt and avoid accounting.” Such actions lead to the surviving journalists even more danger, the group said and removes “justice” for those who died.
Worldwide journalists were also intimidated, censored and arrested or attacked. Such incidents were reported in Cameroon, Somalia and Afghanistan, although there were no journalists in these countries. In the war between Ukraine and Russia, there was no death of journalists, though several, perhaps, focused attacks left the affected journalists, CPJ said. A Ukrainian journalist who was detained In August 2023, last year, he died in custody.
“Conditions can grow more deadly for the press when those who kill journalists do not take into account. And less journalists means less information for citizens looking for the truth,” CPJ said.