More journalists were killed in 2024 than in any other year since the Committee to Protect Journalists began collecting data more than three decades ago, at least 124 journalists and media workers were killed last year, nearly two-thirds of them Palestinians killed by Israel.

The number of conflicts globally – whether political, criminal, or military in nature – has doubled in the past five years, and this is reflected in the high number of deaths of journalists in nations such as Sudan, Pakistan, and Myanmar. But the toll of conflict on the press is most glaring in the unprecedented number of journalists and media workers killed in the Israel-Gaza war, 85 in 2024, and 78 in 2023. All of the 2024 killings point to the increased dangers facing reporters and media workers – and the threat that poses to the flow of information worldwide. The global total of 124 deaths exceeds the record high of 113 killed in 2007, when the Iraq war accounted for almost half of journalist casualties. Outside of Gaza (82) and Lebanon (3), CPJ documented the killing of 39 other journalists and media workers in 16 nations, with the deadliest being Sudan (6), Pakistan (6), Mexico (5), Syria (4), Myanmar (3), Iraq (3), and Haiti (2) during 2024. CPJ records a journalist’s killing in its database if it has reasonable grounds to believe they may have been killed in relation to their work: either killed accidentally in a conflict zone or on a dangerous assignment, or killed deliberately because of their journalism.