In 2025, Israel killed two-thirds of the journalists.

 

In 2025, Israel killed two-thirds of the journalists.

In 2025, a record 129 journalists and media professionals lost their lives worldwide. Israeli security forces and troops killed two-thirds of them. This information was revealed in a report released on Wednesday by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

CPJ has been gathering media-related data for over thirty years and is an outspoken advocate for the rights of journalists around the world. The New York-based group claims that journalist murders have occurred for the second year in a row. The deadliest year for journalists to date was 2025. Israel alone killed 86 of the 129 journalists that perished. Of them, Palestinians made up over 60%.

According to CPJ, there were more journalist fatalities in Sudan and Ukraine in 2025 than in 2024. Drone use is expressly mentioned in 39 incidents in the study. Of them, Israel's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed five in Sudan and 28 in Gaza. A Russian drone strike in Ukraine has killed four journalists.

Many more journalists have been slain for covering corruption, according to CPJ. For instance, suspects in a fraud ring in Bangladesh killed a journalist by hacking him.