RSF’s 2024 Round-up: journalism pays an exorbitant human price in conflicts and repressive regimes
The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2024 Round-up reveals an alarming intensification of attacks on journalists — especially in conflict zones, where over half of the news professionals who lost their lives this year perished. Gaza stands out as the most dangerous region in the world, with the highest number of journalists murdered in connection with their work in the last five years. Since October 2023, over 145 journalists have been killed by the Israeli army, including at least 35 whose deaths were linked to their journalism. What’s more, 550 journalists are currently imprisoned worldwide, a 7% increase from last year. This violence — often perpetrated by governments and armed groups with total impunity — needs an immediate response. RSF calls for urgent action to protect journalists and journalism.
“Journalists do not die, they are killed; they are not in prison, regimes lock them up; they do not disappear, they are kidnapped. These crimes — often orchestrated by governments and armed groups with total impunity — violate international law and too often go unpunished. We need to get things moving, to remind ourselves as citizens that journalists are dying for us, to keep us informed. We must continue to count, name, condemn, investigate, and ensure that justice is served. Fatalism should never win. Protecting those who inform us is protecting the truth.
A third of the journalists killed in 2024 were slain by the Israeli armed forces
- A record 54 journalists killed, including 31 in conflict zones Around the world, the number of journalists killed for covering conflict zones — in Iraq, Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine, and the region affected by the war in Gaza — has reached a five-year high (57.4%).
- Gaza: the world's most dangerous region for journalists In 2024, the Gaza Strip accounted for nearly 30% of journalists killed on the job, according to RSF’s latest information. They were killed by the Israeli army.
- Palestine is the most dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years. More than 145 journalists have been killed in Palestine since October 2023, including at least 35 targeted in the line of duty, according to our latest information.
- RSF continues to investigate these deaths to identify and condemn the deliberate targeting of media workers, and has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes committed against journalists.
- Asia: the second most dangerous region for journalists Due to the large number of journalists killed in Pakistan (seven) and the protests that rocked Bangladesh (five), Asia remained the region with the second-highest number of killed media workers.
550 journalists detained
- The number of journalists behind bars increased
The rise in the number of detained journalists this year (+7.2%) is in large part due to new journalists in custody in Russia (+8) and Israel (+17). - Israel became the world’s third-largest prison for journalists
Israel is, by far, the country that has locked up the most journalists since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, and is now the world's third-biggest prison for journalists. - Locked-up journalists are concentrated in four countries
The world's four largest prisons — China (124, including 11 in Hong Kong), Myanmar (61), Israel (41) and Belarus (40) — hold almost half of the world's detained journalists. - 250 years in prison: the combined sentence of journalists around the world
Imprisonment is weaponised to repress journalism, especially in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Russia (38) uses its prisons as a means to repress independent Russian and Ukrainian reporters (19).
55 journalists held hostage
- 70% of hostages are in Syria.
Most of them were kidnapped by the Islamic State during the war and, ten years later, it is still extremely difficult — if not virtually impossible — to obtain information on their fate and whereabouts. The collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime has opened a window of hope. - Yemen: the only country with new hostages in 2024
Of the 55 media workers currently held hostage worldwide, 2 were kidnapped in 2024, by the Houthis in Yemen. - Mali: the only country with new hostages in 2023
Director Saleck Ag Jiddou and host Moustapha Koné of Radio Coton were kidnapped on 7 November 2023 by an armed group. The demanded ransom is now 4 million CFA francs (around 6,150 euros).
95 missing journalists
- Nearly 100 journalists are still missing in 34 countries around the world. Over a quarter of these journalists have disappeared in the last 10 years.
- 28 disappeared in the last decade
Most notably, they went missing in Mexico (five), Syria (three), Mali (three), the Democratic Republic of Congo (two), Palestine (two) and Iraq (two). - 45% of missing journalists are victims of enforced disappearance.
Disappearances are often attributed to authoritarian or negligent governments, which highlights the urgent need to combat impunity and strengthen protections for journalists. RSF calls on all countries to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 but only counts 75 ratifications to date. - Mexico stands out as the country with the most missing journalists: the country concentrates more than 30% of missing journalist cases.
- 4 new enforced disappearances occurred in Burkina Faso, Nicaragua, Russia, and Syria in 2024.
View our barometer in real-time
RSF's online barometer is constantly updated by our zone managers and correspondents with the names of journalists who have been subject to abuse (killed, detained, held hostage, missing).
Since 1995, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has compiled an annual round-up of abuses committed against journalists, based on precise data compiled between 1 January and 1 December of the year of publication. The total tally for the 2024 report includes professional and non-professional journalists, as well as media workers. RSF meticulously gathers information enabling us to state with certainty — or at least with a very strong presumption — that the detention/imprisonment, abduction, disappearance or death of a journalist is a direct consequence of his or her journalistic work. This methodology may explain the differences between our statistics and those of other organisations.
Killed journalist
RSF logs a journalist’s death in its press freedom barometer when they are killed on the job or in connection with their status as a journalist.
Journalist behind bars
RSF distinguishes between three categories for journalists thrown behind bars due to their work:
• Provisional detention: any deprivation of freedom for more than 48 hours of a person who has not yet been tried.
• Imprisonment: deprivation of a journalist’s freedom after a conviction.
• House arrest: obliging a journalist to remain in a designated location — often in their home — determined by the authority ordering it, possibly under electronic surveillance, and/or with a requirement to report regularly to the police and/or to remain in the designated place at specific times. It can be imposed as an alternative to imprisonment for those convicted, or as a surveillance measure for those being prosecuted.
Journalist held hostage
RSF considers that a journalist is a hostage from the moment they are deprived of their freedom by a non-state actor who combines this deprivation of liberty with threats to kill or injure the journalist, or who continues to detain them with the aim of coercing a third party to perform or refrain from performing an act as an explicit or implicit condition for the hostage’s release, safety or well-being.
Missing journalist
RSF classifies journalists as missing when there is not enough evidence to determine if they were victims of a homicide or abduction and no credible claim of responsibility has been made.
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Reported missing: the default status when a journalist or media worker is missing and it is not known if they were taken hostage, are in state custody or were killed, when evidence of death or abduction is non-existent or insufficient, and when no credible claim of responsibility has been made.
- Enforced disappearance: under international law, this is characterised by three essential criteria: deprivation of freedom by an official authority (or a group acting in its name, with its support or consent) combined with the refusal either to recognise this deprivation or reveal the fate and whereabouts of the person concerned.
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