Gaza Herald – At least 129 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide in 2025, marking the deadliest year for the press since record-keeping began in 1992, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The watchdog found that Israeli forces were responsible for roughly two-thirds of those killings, the highest share attributed to any single military in more than three decades of documentation.
The report, released Wednesday in New York, concluded that Israel carried out an unprecedented wave of targeted killings against journalists, surpassing every other government military force tracked by the organization. The overwhelming majority of those killed were Palestinian reporters and media workers operating in Gaza.
More than three-quarters of the global killings occurred in war zones. While four journalists were killed in Ukraine and nine in Sudan last year, CPJ described those figures as “extremely low” in comparison to the scale recorded in Israel’s genocide on Gaza.
CPJ Executive Director Jodie Ginsberg said journalists are being killed at record levels at a time when public access to verified information is more critical than ever. She warned that attacks on the press are a key indicator of wider assaults on civil liberties and that the persistent lack of accountability compounds the danger.
The report also documented a sharp escalation in drone strikes targeting media workers. Thirty-nine journalists were killed by drone attacks in 2025 alone, including 28 in Gaza attributed to Israeli forces, representing the highest drone-related toll in wars since 2022.
CPJ further identified entrenched impunity as a central driver of the crisis. Of 47 deliberate killings documented last year, the highest number of direct assassinations of journalists in a decade, none resulted in meaningful accountability, and only a limited number were subject to transparent investigations.
