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December 09, 2025 – General –
Gaza has been identified as the most lethal conflict zone for journalists in 2025, according to a new report by the press-freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The organisation’s findings show that more journalists were killed covering the fighting in and around the besieged territory than in any other country or war zone this year, underscoring the extreme risks faced by media workers reporting from the frontlines.
The RSF report — released on December 9 — highlights that the majority of fatal attacks on journalists occurred in Gaza, where ongoing clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters have made independent reporting exceptionally dangerous. Local and international correspondents working in crowded urban areas have been exposed to active combat, shelling, air strikes, and chaotic evacuation conditions, often without guaranteed protection or safe passage.
According to RSF’s analysis, Israel was, for the second consecutive year, the state most frequently implicated in journalist deaths globally — a grim statistic that reflects both the intensity of the conflict in Gaza and the barriers to media safety in the territory. The organisation noted that journalists have been killed not only by indiscriminate violence but in circumstances where it was difficult or impossible to distinguish clearly between combatants and protected media status.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that Gaza’s designation as the deadliest reporting environment in 2025 comes amid a broader trend of escalating threats to press freedom in war zones worldwide. Groups like RSF say the high death toll in Gaza surpasses that of other conflicts, including Ukraine and parts of Africa, and represents one of the most dangerous periods on record for frontline journalism.
International news agencies and human-rights advocates have expressed grave concern that the toll of killed journalists undermines the public’s access to independent information from affected regions. They warn that targeting or failing to protect media workers jeopardizes accountability, obscures human-rights reporting, and can embolden forces that wish to suppress independent coverage of human suffering.
RSF is calling on all parties to the Gaza conflict to urgently adopt measures to protect journalists, facilitate safe access for press missions, and ensure that those responsible for attacks on media workers are held to account. Its report also urges the international community to step up pressure on belligerents to recognise and uphold the rights and safety of journalists operating in conflict zones.
For the world’s press corps, the RSF findings starkly reinforce a reality where reporting the truth from the most contested hotspots can cost journalists their lives — and where protections long assumed in international law continue to be ignored amid the fog of war.
Reference –
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-10/gaza-named-deadliest-place-for-journalists-in-2025/106123004
