Globally, a total of 104 media professionals have been killed since 1 January, with 66 of these in the Middle East, 20 in Asia and the Pacific, eight in Africa, six in the Americas and four in Europe, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported on World Human Rights Day, 10 December.
Of the journalists killed in the Middle East, 55 were Palestinian, representing over half of the total killed in 2024, and bringing the total of Palestinian journalists killed since the start of the war in Gaza on 7 October 2023 to at least 138.
The IFJ highlighted the murder of three media professionals in Iraq this year, including two Kurdish journalists, Gulîstan Tara and Hêro Bahadîn, who were targeted and killed by a Turkish drone strike near Sulaimaniyah (Silêmanî), Kurdistan Region of Iraq, on 23 August. Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in its 2024 Press Freedom Index rankings, warned that Turkish authorities use “all possible means to undermine critics”.
The IFP also highlighted the 4 December killing in Syria of a photojournalist, which the Campaign to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said occurred while he was covering recent battles between government and rebel forces. RSF noted that the now fallen Assad regime treated the media as a “tool for disseminating Baathist ideology”, and reporters were denied access to “entire swathes of the country”.
Meanwhile, the forward-looking Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), governing areas in the north of the country under attack from Turkish forces and Turkish-backed mercenaries, issued an urgent invitation to journalists on 5 December. “We would like to invite journalists and reporters to the Kurdish regions of North and East Syria to enable neutral reporting,” it said, confirming that it will provide security, on-site translation and accommodation.
Releasing the IFJ’s 2024 listing of journalists killed worldwide, IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “These sad figures show once again how fragile press freedom is and how risky and dangerous is the profession of journalism. The public’s need for information is very real at a time when authoritarian regimes are developing all over the world.” He went on to urge the United Nations to develop a convention on the safety of journalists, “so as to put an end to the deaths and injuries that occur every year”.
