The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, documented the deaths of 129 journalists and media workers worldwide in 2025, describing it as a record number surpassing any other year since the organization began collecting data in 1992.
In a report released on Wednesday, February 25, CPJ said the toll marks the second consecutive annual record for journalist deaths globally.
The organization held Israel responsible for two thirds of the total number of victims, stating that the Israeli army killed more journalists than any other government military force on record.
CPJ noted that the majority of journalists killed by Israeli forces were Palestinian reporters and media workers in Gaza.
CPJ Executive Director Jodie Ginsberg said, “Journalists are being killed in record numbers at a time when access to information has never been more important.”
Ginsberg described attacks on the media as a key indicator of broader assaults on other freedoms, calling for greater protection to prevent such killings and to hold perpetrators accountable, as the killing of journalists poses a danger to everyone due to their role in reporting the news.
Most deaths occurred in armed conflicts
CPJ said that more than three quarters of journalist deaths in 2025 took place in the context of armed conflict.
The organization reported an increase in the number of journalists killed in Ukraine and Sudan in 2025 compared with the previous year, with four and nine killed in each country respectively.
However, it stressed that these figures remain significantly lower than those recorded in Israel, which it described as a notable outlier.
One of the most significant findings of this year’s report, according to CPJ, is the growing use of drones to kill journalists, with 39 cases documented.
These included 28 cases attributed to the Israeli army in Gaza, five to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, and one resulting from a suspected Turkish airstrike in Iraq.
CPJ also documented the killing of four journalists in Ukraine by Russian drones, marking the highest annual number of journalist deaths in that war since 15 journalists were killed in 2022.
Reasons behind the rise
CPJ attributed the global increase in journalist killings to the entrenchment of a culture of impunity.
It pointed to the lack of transparent investigations in 47 cases of deliberate killings documented in 2025, classified as “murder” under CPJ’s long standing methodology.
The organization said this figure is the highest in the past decade, noting that no one has been held accountable in any of these cases.
Consequences of impunity
CPJ warned that the continued failure of government leaders to protect the press or hold attackers accountable paves the way for more killings, including in countries not experiencing war.
It cited examples of journalist deaths in Mexico, India, and the Philippines, countries it said have consistently failed to ensure justice in cases of deliberate killings of journalists.
In Mexico, CPJ recorded the killing of at least six journalists, noting that the federal protection mechanism established to address the persistently high rate of journalist killings has largely proven ineffective.
The organization added that at least one journalist has been killed every year in Mexico over the past decade.
In the Philippines, three journalists were shot dead, and investigations have led to only one arrest in what CPJ described as a country with a long history of violence against journalists.
According to CPJ, journalists covering corruption and organized crime in Asia and Latin America have been brutally targeted because of their work.
The organization also said that authoritarian regimes continue to punish journalists with execution. In Saudi Arabia, prominent writer and journalist Turki al-Jasser was executed after seven years in detention.
CPJ called for fundamental reforms in how governments investigate journalist killings in order to bring perpetrators to justice, including the establishment of an international investigative task force and the imposition of targeted sanctions.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide and defends the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.
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