TEL AVIV – A report released on Tuesday (December 9, 2025) by Anadolu Agency shows that the Israeli military is responsible for nearly half of the deaths of journalists worldwide by 2025.
According to Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based international NGO that advocates for journalists’ rights, 2025 saw an increase in the number of journalists murdered worldwide. The report indicates that 67 media professionals were killed during the year, and at least 53 of them were victims of “criminal practices by military groups and organized crime.”
“Nearly half (43%) of the journalists killed in the past 12 months were killed in Gaza by Israeli armed forces,” the report stated. Around 220 journalists have been killed by Israeli soldiers since October 2023, 65 of whom were targeted because of their profession or while working, it added.
According to data from the Gaza Government Media Office, at least 257 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the start of the genocidal war. Israel ranks second in the number of foreign journalists detained, the report said, with 20 Palestinian journalists imprisoned in 2025, in addition to 16 arrested in Gaza and the West Bank over the past two years. Israeli forces have killed more than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured more than 171,000 others in Gaza since October 2023.
The report found Mexico to be the “second most dangerous country in the world for journalists,” with nine deaths, and China to be home to the “world’s largest prison for journalists,” holding 121 reporters. Journalists face even greater risks in their own countries, the organization said, as all but two of the murdered professionals died while carrying out their duties in their home countries.
“In Sudan, journalists face serious harassment as the conflict continues to rage,” the report stated, noting that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed four journalists in 2025, including two kidnapped by rebel groups. Thirty-seven of the 135 journalists currently missing in Syria disappeared during the ousted regime of President Bashar al-Assad after being imprisoned by regime authorities or held hostage by ISIS (Daesh), according to the report.
Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on December 8, 2024, ending the Baath Party regime that had been in power since 1963. Al-Sharaa, who led the anti-regime forces that overthrew Assad, was declared president for a transitional period in late January.
