Why 2025 is another Deadliest Year for Journalists

As the year 2025 approaches the end, it has emerged as a deadliest year for journalists since the beginning of the century, after 2024. At least 161 media professionals were killed in 31 countries till date this year, where 2024 witnessed 179 journo-casualties around the world. According to the Geneva-based global media safety and rights body Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) no less than 60 journalists were killed in the Gaza Strip, almost all of them victims of Israeli strikes. Since the start of hostilities triggered by Hamas on 7 October 2023, at least 221 Palestinian media personnel have been killed in Gaza (81 casualties in 2023, 80 in 2024 and 60 in 2025). The war between Ukraine and Russia has resulted in the deaths of nine journalists, who were killed by either Ukrainian or Russian fire. Three Ukrainian journalists were killed, as was French journalist Antoni Lallican in Ukraine, and five Russian journalists were killed by Ukrainian fire in the border regions (in Ukraine and Russia).

“The increasing use of undetectable, ultra-fast drones poses a new and serious threat to war reporters on both sides. Access to victims is even more restricted,” lamented Blaise Lempen, present of PEC (httpswww.pressemblem.ch). By region, the Middle East leads with 87 deaths, ahead of Latin America with 25, Asia with 22, Africa with 15, Europe with 10 and the United States with 2. Two-thirds of the victims recorded in 2025 were killed in an area of armed conflict (108). Among the countries most affected, the PEC deplores the deaths of 15 media workers in Yemen, including 13 in an Israeli attack on 10 September. Faced with violence from drug traffickers, Mexico remains a country with the highest number of journo-victims, with nine murders in 2025. The situation in Sudan has also worsened due to ongoing fighting, with at least eight deaths among Sudanese media personnel.

The PEC counted six victims in India, five in Ecuador and five in Pakistan. Four were killed in Bangladesh, four in Iran, targeted by an Israeli attack in Tehran, and four in the Philippines. In Peru, three journalists were murdered. There were also three victims in Syria. Next came Afghanistan, Colombia, Honduras, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the United States, with 2 killed in each country. One death was recorded in each of the following countries Brazil, Guatemala, Haiti, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Tanzania, Turkey and Zimbabwe.

Among the PEC's main concerns, impunity remains a major problem. In the absence of independent investigations and prosecutions, these crimes are on the rise. The PEC supports the recommendation issued by the conference on the protection of journalists in armed conflicts, which met in Doha of Qatar, on 8 and 9 October, calling for the creation of an international commission of inquiry under the auspices of the UN pending the adoption of an international convention on the protection of journalists in conflict zones with the creation of an internationally recognised press emblem. The PEC is also very concerned about the increase in the number of individual requests for support it has received from persecuted journalists seeking safe asylum. Journalists from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Syria, Turkey and Sudan have requested assistance from the PEC.