One year and climbing: Israel responsible for record journalist death toll

A journalist and others rush toward the scene of an explosion following an Israeli strike on the outskirts of Gaza City, on September 1, 2024. (Photo: AFP/Omar Al-Qattaa)
A journalist joins others rushing toward the scene of an explosion following an Israeli strike on the outskirts of Gaza City, on September 1, 2024. (Photo: AFP/Omar Al-Qattaa)

Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza has exacted an unprecedented and horrific toll on Palestinian journalists and the region’s media landscape.

At least 128 journalists and media workers, all but five of them Palestinian, have been killed – more journalists than have died in the course of any year since CPJ began documenting journalist killings in 1992. All of the killings, except two Israeli journalists killed in the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, were carried out by Israeli forces. CPJ has found that at least five journalists were specifically targeted by Israel for their work.

At least 69 Palestinian journalists have been arrested since the start of the war, 66 by Israel and three by Palestinian authorities. Forty-three were still behind bars as of October 4. On a per capita basis, Israeli authorities now hold the highest number of detained journalists in the world in a given year over the past two decades.

The killings, along with censorship, arrests, the continued ban on independent media access into Gaza, persistent internet shutdowns, the destruction of media outlets, and displacement of the Gaza media community, have severely restricted reporting on the war and hampered documentation.

In Israel, press freedom has been curtailed by the passage of a new law that empowers the government to ban media outlets, an increasing number of banned articles, government officials’ anti-press rhetoric, alleged attempts to control news outlets, and attacks on both international and local reporters in the West Bank and Israel, among other threats.

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See CPJ’s full coverage of the Israel-Gaza war

On Edge: What US election could mean for journalists and global press freedom
Journalists report from the U.S. Capitol as pro-Trump protesters stormed the building on January 6, 2021, to contest the certification of the 2020 presidential election. (Photo: Reuters/Ahmed Gaber)
Journalists report from the U.S. Capitol as pro-Trump protesters stormed the building on January 6, 2021, to contest the certification of the 2020 presidential election. (Photo: Reuters/Ahmed Gaber)

A CPJ special report ahead of the November vote finds that the hostile media climate fostered during Donald Trump’s presidency has continued to fester, with members of the press confronting challenges that could shape the global media environment for decades.

“It is concerning that in an increasingly polarized environment, threats to the media have become routine in the U.S.,” said Katherine Jacobsen, CPJ’s U.S., Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator and author of the report. “The scapegoating of journalists not only has consequences for them personally, but also poses grave risks to the public’s right to be informed, a core element of any democracy.”

Threats to journalists include police assaults, violence, and online harassment, with work-related attacks in the first nine of months of 2024 increasing by more than 50% compared to 2023. Media outlets are also facing a draining onslaught of lawsuits that could endanger reporters’ First Amendment rights and ability to protect confidential sources.

Read the full report and press release

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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.

In at least 8 out of 10 cases, the murderers of journalists go free. CPJ is waging a global campaign against impunity.

journalists killed in 2024 (motive confirmed)
imprisoned in 2023
missing globally