Overview
- CPJ tallied 129 journalists and media workers killed in 2025, marking a second straight annual record.
- Israeli fire accounted for 86 deaths, most of them Palestinian reporters in Gaza, with 31 others killed in a strike on a Houthi media center in Yemen.
- Drone warfare featured prominently with 39 journalist deaths documented, including 28 attributed to Israel in Gaza, five to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, and four to Russian attacks in Ukraine.
- CPJ classified 47 killings as targeted murders and reported almost no transparent investigations or accountability in those cases.
- Israel denies deliberately targeting journalists and limits foreign media access to Gaza, which CPJ says hampers verification, while other deadly locales included Sudan (9), Mexico (6), Ukraine (4) and the Philippines (3).