Record 129 journalists killed worldwide in 2025; Israel responsible for two-thirds
A record 129 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide in 2025, the highest annual total since 1992, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Israel accounted for roughly two-thirds of the global total.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit that tracks attacks on the press globally, said Wednesday that 2025 marked the second consecutive year of record press deaths.
CPJ said more than three-quarters of the deaths occurred in conflict zones. It documented 47 cases in 2025 that it classified as targeted killings, the highest number of journalists deliberately killed for their work in the past decade. No one has been held accountable in any of those cases, the group said.
Israel accounted for 86 of the killings, roughly two-thirds of the global total, making the broader conflict involving Israel, including Gaza and related hostilities in Lebanon, Yemen and Iran, the deadliest for journalists since CPJ began keeping records in 1992.
Among those killed was Hossam Shabat, a 23-year-old correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubasher and U.S.-based outlet Drop Site News, who was killed in March in an Israeli strike on his car in northern Gaza.
In August, Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif and five other journalists were killed in a strike on a tent housing journalists. In Yemen, Israeli airstrikes on two newspaper offices killed 31 journalists and media workers, CPJ said.
The report also documented an increase in the use of drones to kill journalists. CPJ recorded 39 cases involving drones, including 28 in Gaza attributed to Israel’s military, five in Sudan attributed to the Rapid Support Forces, and four in Ukraine involving Russian military drones.
In Ukraine, four journalists were killed in 2025, the highest annual number since 15 were killed in 2022. Those killed included Ukrainian journalists Olena Hramova and Yevhen Karmazin, who were attacked by a Russian military drone while reporting for Ukraine’s state-funded international broadcaster Freedom in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region.
French photojournalist Antoni Lallican was also killed in October in a targeted strike by a Russian first-person view drone while reporting in Donetsk.
Sudan ranked second with nine journalists killed as the country’s civil war entered its third year.
Mexico ranked third with six journalists killed, all unsolved. CPJ said at least one journalist has been killed in Mexico every year for the past decade despite a federal protection mechanism intended to safeguard reporters.
Among those killed was Calletano de Jesús Guerrero, deputy editor of an online outlet covering crime in Mexico state, who was shot dead in January despite being under federal protection since 2014 because of threats related to his reporting. His killers have not been identified.
In the Philippines, three journalists were shot dead in 2025, with only one case resulting in an arrest. In India, freelance journalist Mukesh Chandrakar was found dead in a septic tank after reporting on alleged corruption in a major road project. In Peru, television journalist Gastón Medina was shot 11 times outside his home after criticizing local authorities.
Authoritarian governments also executed journalists, CPJ said. In Saudi Arabia, columnist Turki al-Jasser was executed after seven years in detention on charges including treason and foreign collaboration.
“Journalists are being killed in record numbers at a time when access to information is more important than ever,” CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said. “Attacks on the media are a leading indicator of attacks on other freedoms.”
CPJ called for reforms in how governments investigate journalist killings, including the creation of an international investigative task force and targeted sanctions against perpetrators.
According to CPJ’s 2025 ranking, the countries and territories with journalists killed were:
- Journalists killed by Israel in Gaza, Yemen, and Iran – 86
- Sudan – 9
- Mexico – 6
- Journalists killed by Russia in Ukraine – 4
- Philippines – 3
- Guatemala – 2
- India – 2
- Pakistan – 2
- Peru – 2
- Afghanistan – 1
- Bangladesh – 1
- Colombia – 1
- Democratic Republic of the Congo – 1
- Ecuador – 1
- Ethiopia – 1
- Journalists killed by Palestinian militia in Gaza – 1
- Honduras – 1
- Iraq – 1
- Nepal – 1
- Saudi Arabia – 1
- Syria – 1
- Yemen – 1
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
