165 journalists killed in 21 countries up to December 15

Twelve journalists including one female lost their lives in Pakistan

Geneva, December 17, 2024 (PEC) A record number of media workers have been killed this year, the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) deplored in Geneva on Tues-day.
At least 165 of them lost their lives in 21 countries around the world (until December 15). Two conflicts are responsible for two thirds of victims: the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine

The increase compared with 2023 is almost 18%.

‘The situation is particularly dramatic in the Gaza Strip because of the continuing Israeli strikes’, said PEC President Blaise Lempen. ‘The targeted or accidental elimination of Palestinian journalists on the ground, the destruction of media fa-cilities, the refusal to allow foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip and the pres-sure on the Israeli media demonstrate the current Israeli government’s systematic determination to prevent any information on the fate of the Palestinian popula-tion’, he added.

Since January 1, the conflict in the Middle East has claimed the lives of 82 jour-nalists: at least 74 in the Gaza Strip, 6 in Lebanon and 2 in Syria. In total, the hostilities in Gaza since 7 October 2023 have killed at least 155 media workers, an unprecedented toll for a conflict in such a short space of time.

In 2024, the war in Ukraine resulted in the deaths of 19 Ukrainian journalists (most of whom had joined the army) plus one foreigner (Ryan Evans of Reuters in Kramatorsk). Four Russian journalists were victims of the conflict, three in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia and one in Kursk. To this must be add-ed the death in custody in Russia on 10 October of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Rochtchina, making a total of 25 victims (see paragraph on sources below).

Outside the Middle East and Ukraine, Pakistan had the highest number of jour-nalists killed, 12 since January, a clear deterioration. Russia has 7 journalists killed (including the 3 in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine). In Bangla-desh, unrest in July left 7 journalists dead.

The situation remains very dangerous in Mexico, where 7 journalists have been killed. Hostilities in Sudan caused the death of 5 journalists. In Colombia, 4 me-dia workers were killed, 4 in India, 3 in Iraq and 3 in Myanmar (Burma). Two people were killed in Somalia and two in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Cambodia, Chad, Ecuador, Honduras, Indonesia, and the Philippines, followed with one fatality in each country.

Fewer in Latin America

The death toll of 165 is equivalent to 3 victims a week. In ten years, the PEC has counted 1,172 victims, an average of 2.25 per week. Over the last five years, the most dangerous countries have been Gaza/West Bank (159), Ukraine (59), Mexi-co (55), Pakistan (36) and India (32).

By continent in 2024, the Middle East had the highest number of victims (85: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq), ahead of Asia (30). Europe follows (28: Ukraine and Russia), ahead of Latin America (13) and Africa (9). In addition to the Middle East and Europe, there has been a deterioration in Asia from one year to the next (30 deaths compared with 12). On the positive side, there were fewer victims in Latin America this year than last (13 compared with 20).

Almost three quarters of the journalists killed this year were killed in conflict zones (120 out of 165). At this stage of the investigations, it is not possible to de-termine the number of deliberate murders as opposed to accidental deaths (vic-tims of gunfire, bombings). Many other journalists were injured, particularly in Lebanon.

The PEC condemns these crimes, committed in violation of international law and national legislation. Independent investigations are essential to clarify the circum-stances and prosecute those responsible in order to combat impunity.

Sources

Sources: in Ukraine, the PEC is based on the count by the Institute of Mass In-formation (https://imi.org.ua/en), with the addition of those killed on the Russian side. According to the IMI, the conflict in Ukraine since February 2022 has claimed 93 victims. The Institute counts journalists killed in the ranks of the armed forces (the deaths of some of whom are often not known until several months later, hence the postponement of deaths from 2023 to 2024). The PEC adds to its statistics Rssian journalists killed, not counted by the IMI, and whose deaths due to fighting were announced by the Russian media.

For Gaza, the figures from the Palestinian Journalists’ Union and the Hamas gov-ernment’s media office are higher (196 since October 2023). The difficulty is knowing whether some of the victims meet the usual criteria for the profession of journalist (press card, accreditation by a media outlet) or whether they impro-vised as journalists because of the circumstances. It is impossible to know with certainty whether they were deliberately targeted or not, in the absence of investi-gations and independent witnesses at the scene.

Elsewhere in the world, the PEC uses news broadcast by local media and press agencies.

Unlike other organizations, the PEC includes in its statistics all journalists killed, whether or not their deaths were related to their professional activity. It is diffi-cult to prove that a crime was committed in connection with a journalist’s work without a full and independent investigation, which is often lacking.

Source: PEC