Committee to Protect Journalists – Defending Journalists Worldwide.

Israel kills 4 Gaza journalists in a week

Mourners, including colleagues, attend the funeral of Palestinian Ahmed Al-Louh, a freelance video journalist for Al Jazeera, after he was killed on December 15, 2024. (Photo: Reuters/Ramadan Abed)

Israeli forces killed four Palestinian journalists in Gaza during the week ending December 15, prompting CPJ to call for the international community to hold Israel accountable for its attacks against the media.

“At least 95 journalists and media workers have been killed worldwide in 2024,” CPJ’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in New York. “Israel is responsible for two thirds of those deaths and yet continues to act with total impunity when it comes to the killing of journalists and its attacks on the media.”

The journalists killed in Israeli strikes were:

Ahmed Al-Louh, a 39-year-old freelancer for multiple outlets including Qatar-funded Al Jazeera, killed on December 15, 2024.

Mohammed Balousha, a 38-year-old reporter for the Al Mashhad Media, killed in a direct Israeli drone strike on December 14, 2024.

Mohammed Al Qrinawi, editor at the local Snd news agency, killed along with his family in an Israeli airstrike on December 14, 2024.

Iman Al Shanti, a 36-year-old host and producer for Al Aqsa Radio and a reporter for Al Jazeera’s AJ+ platform, killed along with her family on December 11, 2024.

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The Afghan journalists bypassing the ‘Taliban firewall’

Faisal Karimi (right) and Wahab Siddiqi run an exile newsroom focused on Afghan women’s stories. (Photo: CPJ/Ananya Bhasin)

Faisal Karimi and Wahab Siddiqi, who lead the Afghanistan Women’s News Agency, were among the first journalists to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban retook control of the country in August 2021. After escaping the country undetected, they made their way to a refugee camp in Albania. Then, they got to work rebuilding the newsroom they had left behind.

More than three years later, the two journalists run the agency from exile in the United States. In a an interview with CPJ, they spoke about the importance of hearing women’s voices in Afghanistan and how they keep their in-country staff safe amid Taliban hostility to women journalists and the exile press.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists promotes press freedom worldwide.

We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

Learn more about Myat Thu Tan