A new committee report to protect journalists said on Wednesday that 2024 had seen a record number of journalists killed worldwide.
Israel was responsible for almost 70% of people killed in the past year, Sudan and Pakistan with the second highest assessments, according to the reports results.
The committee to protect journalists (CPJ), CEO, Jodie Ginsberg, said that it was “the most dangerous moment to be a journalist in the history of CPJ”.
“The war in Gaza is unprecedented in its impact on journalists and demonstrates a major deterioration in global standards on the protection of journalists in conflict areas, but it is far from being the only place that journalists are in danger” Ginsberg said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Committee report indicated that at least 124 journalists in 18 different countries were killed last year, marking the deadliest year for journalists and media workers since CPJ began collecting data and Save them over three decades ago.
The number of journalists and media workers killed in 2024 compared to previous years experienced a sharp increase. According to the report, 102 were killed in 2023 and 69 were killed in 2022.
The previous record for high deaths took place in 2007, when 113 journalists lost their lives, almost half due to the war in Iraq, said CPJ.
85 journalists killed in Israeli attacks in 2024
The CPJ said that the War of Israel -Gaza represented the death of 85 journalists, including 82 in Gaza and three in Lebanon – almost two thirds or 70% – in the hands of the Israeli army in 2024. Some 78 journalists were killed in Gaza the previous year, in 2023, according to the Committee.
The committee accused Israel of having tried to stifle the investigations on incidents, to put the journalists and to ignore its duty to account for the killings.
The Israeli army, when it asked for comments, said that little information had not been provided on alleged incidents and that it was therefore unable to check them, adding that it is necessary All possible operational measures to alleviate damage to journalists and civilians.
“The FDIs have never targeted journalists and do not deliberately target,” said the army.
At least six media journalists and workers have been killed worldwide since the start of this year, CPJ said.
“ Increased dangers ” for journalists, media workers: report
Sudan and Pakistan killed the second largest number of journalists, after Israel, in 2024.
Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and millions were moved to Sudan’s brutal civil war. CPJ said that he had found that three journalists had been killed as part of their work and investigated the murder of a fourth. He also recorded the murders of two media workers.
He said six journalists had been killed in Pakistan, while political troubles and media censorship increased, although the country has not had such deaths since 2021.
“All the murders of 2024 indicate the increased dangers to which are journalists and media workers – And the threat that sets the flow of information in the world, “said the Wednesday report.
Diaa Al-Uustaz says that his work has done a target of him and his colleagues, the International Federation of Journalists reporting this month that at least 152 journalists died covering war.
CPJ said that it has documented an “alarming increase in the number of targeted murders”, adding that at least 24 journalists were deliberately killed because of their work last year, including in Haiti, Mexico, Myanmar, Sudan and elsewhere. He said he had documented at least 10 cases of murders targeted by Israel.
The Committee said that he was also investigating 20 other murders in which he thinks that Israel could have specifically targeted journalists.
Increase in the death of freelancers
Another figure that saw an increase in deaths last year was the number of freelancers killed in conflict areas.
The report indicates that 43 journalists and media workers – more than a third – killed in 2024 were freelancers.
“Another new sinister record for independent press members who are often faced as much danger because they have the least resources,” he said.
Among these, 31 freelancers were killed in Gaza, from 14 in 2023.
Gaza journalists were the only media in the territory torn by the war which offered crucial coverage for the world media – including CBC News – during the war of almost 16 months while members of the foreign media were prohibited from entering, Except during closely controlled visits by the Israeli army.
A progressive ceasefire between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel began on January 19 but is currently in danger. Israel has promised to destroy Hamas after the attack on October 7, 2023 in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages, according to Israeli accounts.
According to Palestinian health authorities, more than 48,000 people, mainly civilians, were killed during the assault on reprisals in Israel.
A study evaluated by peers published in Lancet January 9 suggests that official death figures in Gaza can be considerably underestimated. On June 30, 2024, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported 37,877 deaths; The study estimated that the number was probably about 64,200 on this date.
CPJ said that his methodology to record the murder of a journalist in his database is if he has reasonable reasons to believe that they may have been killed in relation to their work: either accidentally killed in an area conflict or on a dangerous mission, either deliberately killed because of their journalism.
The report also noted that murders are “not the only indicators of a dangerous media landscape”, adding that no journalist had been killed in Somalia, Cameroon or Afghanistan in 2024, but journalists have always been Faced with other pressures such as arrests, attacks and censorship.
