News

December 28, 2024 - General -  According to MedyaNews’ year-end report, PANORAMA 2024, journalism faced unprecedented threats worldwide, with record levels of violence, repression, and impunity. The report highlights a deeply troubling year in which over 550 journalists were arrested or imprisoned, and hundreds lost their lives, especially in conflict zones such as Gaza and Ukraine. The deadliest place for journalists in 2024 was Gaza, where more than 145 media workers were killed, many while reporting from the ground during Israeli military operations. Of those, at least 35 journalists were directly targeted, raising serious concerns...

December 28, 2024 - Iran - Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, 29, was detained by Iranian authorities on December 19, 2024, while in Tehran on a journalist's visa. Iran officially confirmed her arrest on December 30, citing alleged violations of its laws, shortly after Italy detained an Iranian engineer, Mohammad Abedini, under a U.S. warrant. Sala, a correspondent for Il Foglio and the podcast platform Chora Media, had completed interviews and produced episodes for her podcast series Stories during her visit and had been scheduled to leave Iran on December 20. Instead, she was placed in...

December 27, 2024 - Palestine - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), in partnership with the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), has confirmed that at least 170 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the outbreak of the war in October 2023. This figure, updated in early June 2025, marks Gaza as the most lethal conflict zone for journalists in modern history. The deaths have occurred under a range of circumstances—some while journalists were actively reporting, others while they sought refuge with their families. According to the IFJ, many of these killings...

December 27, 2024 - Iran - 29‑year‑old Italian journalist Cecilia Sala traveled to Tehran on a valid press visa. Her mission was to report for Il Foglio and the podcast Stories (Chora Media), covering topics ranging from the Taliban’s return to Kabul to Iran’s internal social dynamics. However, on 19 December, just a day before she was scheduled to depart, Sala was arrested by Iranian authorities. Her detention was only acknowledged on 27 December, when Italy’s foreign ministry disclosed that she was being held in Evin Prison under suspicion of “violating Iranian law". Evin Prison,...

December 26, 2024 - Afghanistan - According to the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC), 2024 marked a steep rise in restrictions on press freedom in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. There were 181 documented violations against journalists and media outlets—an 8% increase from 2023—comprising 131 threats, the detention of 50 journalists, and the forced closure of 18 media organizations. Detentions were frequent, with 50 journalists arrested, and at least five sentenced to two to five-year terms. Among the closed media outlets, only a handful—four—have been permitted to resume operations, leaving the majority permanently shuttered. New policies introduced by the...

December 26, 2024 - Palestine - A devastating Israeli airstrike struck a press vehicle belonging to Al‑Quds Today near Al‑Awda Hospital in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, killing five Palestinian journalists instantly. The journalists—identified as Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al‑Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al‑Ladah, Faisal Abu al‑Qumsan, and Ayman al‑Jadi—were marked as members of the press, with “PRESS” emblazoned on their van. Witnesses and Gaza medical officials confirmed the strike during early morning Israeli bombardment, a day that saw at least 31 Palestinians killed across Gaza. Relatives and colleagues mourned at Al‑Awda Hospital, laying blue press jackets over their...

December 24, 2024 - Haiti - armed gang members attacked journalists and police at the reopening ceremony of Port-au-Prince’s State University Hospital (HUEH). The attempt to resume services at Haiti’s largest public hospital ended in bloodshed. As reporters and a police officer gathered to cover the event, gunmen opened fire from outside the venue. According to multiple sources, two journalists—Jimmy Jean (44) and Markenzy Nathoux—were killed, along with one police officer; at least seven more journalists were injured. Jimmy Jean, a respected father of six who reported for the online outlet Moun Afe Bon, was...

December 24, 2024 - Kurdistan/Syria - In North and East Syria, 30 Kurdish journalists have lost their lives since 2014 while covering the region’s battles, including the fight against ISIS and ongoing Turkish military operations. An article published by Hawar News on December 24, 2024, lists each of their names—many members of the YPG/YPJ media units and Hawar News Agency—capturing how these reporters risked and often sacrificed their lives to document resistance and human rights abuses. This list includes pioneers like Mazloum Bakok, killed in 2014 during efforts to open a humanitarian corridor, and recent...

December 24, 2024 - Palestine/Israel - Al Jazeera Media Network issued a strong condemnation of what it described as an "incitement campaign" orchestrated by Fatah—and by extension the Palestinian Authority (PA)—targeting its journalists in the occupied West Bank. The backlash was triggered by Al Jazeera’s coverage of clashes between PA security forces and resistance fighters in Jenin. Fatah responded by imposing a ban on Al Jazeera’s operations in the governorate, urging Palestinians to avoid collaborating with the network, and accusing the network of sowing division across the Palestinian territories and the broader Arab world. In...

December 23, 2024 - General - Journalist fatalities are increasing, and in response, a memorial is being planned on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as reported by Maryland Matters. Spearheaded by the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation, this initiative was inspired by the 2018 mass shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, which claimed five lives and shocked the U.S. media landscape. Set to be constructed near the Capitol between the National Museum of the American Indian and the Voice of America building, the memorial will stand as the first U.S. structure dedicated to journalists...

December 23, 2025 - Europe - The Council of Europe’s Platform for the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists reports that 165 journalists and media workers are currently detained across Europe. This alarming figure signals an escalating threat to press freedom, with governments increasingly resorting to legal repression, arbitrary arrests, and vague national security charges to silence dissenting voices. Among the most concerning cases is Azerbaijan, which has detained at least 30 journalists, primarily for their investigative reporting on corruption or government abuses. Belarus and Russia continue to top the list, with 44 and...

December 23, 2024 - Russia - Retired police colonel Mikhail Smirnov, once deputy head of the anti-corruption department in St. Petersburg’s law enforcement, admitted to murdering investigative journalist Maxim Maksimov two decades earlier. Maksimov, who worked for Fontanka and the Agency for Investigative Journalism, disappeared in June 2004 while probing allegations of systemic corruption among senior officers, including Smirnov himself. Smirnov made his confession after being arrested in mid-2024 on unrelated charges involving the 1998 bombing of a businessman. During questioning, he admitted to luring the journalist to a house with collaborators, where he strangled...

December 23, 2024 - Azerbaijan - Farid Mehralizada, an economist and contributor to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was detained in May 2024 and accused of conspiring to smuggle foreign currency, among other charges, including illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion, and document forgery, carrying a potential 12-year prison sentence. Mehralizada vehemently denies all allegations and asserts that his arrest stems from his critical reporting on the economy, which he believes threatened authoritarian sensitivities. He explained in court that “journalism in our country today is almost equated with terrorism”. Press freedom organisations such as the Committee...

December 23, 2024 - Azerbaijan - Kyrgyz police detained two journalists from Radio Azattyk—reporter Maksat Kutmanbekov and cameraman Nurlan Beyshebaev—while they were filming near Pre‑trial Detention Center No. 1 in Bishkek, covering a hunger-strike protest by inmates. According to the Oktyabrsky District Department, the detention was preventive: authorities cited a court-ordered ban on demonstrations since August 2024 and said the journalists were taken in for "explanatory talks" before being released shortly afterward. The journalists were interviewing relatives of the detainees, whose hunger strike began on December 22 in protest against the appointment of Chyngyz Kozhoshev as head of the Penitentiary Service and...

December 23, 2024 - Turkey- Turkish authorities detained several journalists and media workers in Istanbul during a protest against the killing of Kurdish journalists Cîhan Bîlgîn and Nazım Daştan, targeted in a suspected Turkish drone strike in northern Syria on December 20. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), five journalists and two media workers were held pending trial, while five others were placed under house arrest. Among those imprisoned were Pınar Gayıp from ETHA, freelance reporter Gülistan Dursun, Hayri Tunç, Enes Sezgin, and Osman Akın of Yeni Yaşam, designer Can Papila, and Serpil Ünal from Mücadele...

December 23, 2024 - General - The Guardian revealed that 55 of the 104 journalists and media workers killed worldwide in 2024 died in Palestine, making it the most dangerous region for journalists that year. These figures, drawn from the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), indicate that over half of global journalist fatalities occurred in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories. The report emphasizes that these numbers do not include arrests, injuries, or missing persons and likely underestimate the full scope of the crisis facing media workers in the region. Since the outbreak of war...

December 23, 2024 - General - Shamsa Ishfaq warns that journalists around the world are increasingly under threat, even as they strive to hold power to account. In Afghanistan—the article highlights—the situation has deteriorated sharply since the Taliban returned in 2021. Data from the UN Assistance Mission (UNAMA) shows that between August 2021 and September 2024, no fewer than 336 journalists and media workers suffered violations, including arrests, torture, threats, and forced media closures, with women journalists particularly vulnerable to systematic exclusion. Ishfaq quotes Fatima Bhutto: “A society that silences its storytellers loses the threads of its humanity,”...

December 23, 2024 - Turkey - In two closely linked cases nearly a decade apart, the Turkish government’s crackdown on Kurdish journalism reveals a long-standing pattern of silencing dissent through arrests, censorship, and criminal charges. In February 2016, Nazım Daştan, a correspondent for the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DIHA), was arrested in Gaziantep for allegedly “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization.” The charges were based on his Facebook posts, which included reporting on alleged Turkish military support for ISIS near the Syrian border. His arrest came during a broader media crackdown in which dozens of...

December 22, 2024 -Serbia - A report by Amnesty International, spotlighted by Deutsche Welle, the Associated Press, Reuters, and The Guardian, exposed a systematic spyware campaign orchestrated by Serbia’s state agencies to target journalists, activists, and government critics. Amnesty’s forensic analysis revealed that individuals—many of whom had not been charged with any crime—were detained or summoned by the Security Information Agency (BIA) or police. During interrogations, their phones were accessed using Israeli-made Cellebrite forensic tools to crack device security, and bespoke spyware called “NoviSpy” was loaded onto their devices. This spyware covertly harvested screenshots, contact...

December 21, 2024 - USA - In Grand Junction, Colorado, internal distress erupted when 39-year-old Patrick Thomas Egan allegedly stalked and assaulted TV reporter Ja’Ronn Alex, forcefully trying to strangle him outside the KKCO/KJCT studio. Throughout the incident, Egan reportedly shouted, “Are you even a U.S. citizen? This is Trump’s America now! I’m a Marine, and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!” Alex, who is of Pacific Islander descent and a native of Detroit, believed the motive was racially driven. According to police and witness accounts documented in surveillance video, the...

December 21, 2024 - USA - Isaac White—a Mohawk journalist for Indian Time based in Akwesasne—was arrested while covering a land claim demonstration on Barnhart Island, northern New York, ancestral Mohawk territory now controlled by the New York Power Authority. According to White’s account, as published by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, he introduced himself as a reporter when police detained him, but was nonetheless handcuffed and taken in, despite doing nothing illegal beyond documenting the protest. White described the incident starkly: “You’re under arrest.” “I’m a reporter.” “I don’t care.” He found the...

December 21, 2024 - Venezuela - Venezuelan journalist Ana Carolina Guaita, a reporter for the critical digital outlet La Patilla, was formally released on December 21, 2024, after more than four months of detention amid post-election protests. Her arrest sparked immediate international concern over press suppression in Venezuela. Guaita was initially detained on August 2, 2024, reportedly by agents of SEBIN (Bolivarian National Intelligence Service), as she was covering protests surrounding President Nicolás Maduro’s contested July election victory. Following her disappearance, Guaita’s family was left in the dark. Her mother faced coercive pressure from authorities, who allegedly told her, "Libero a su...

December 21, 2024 - General - Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) are increasingly used across Europe to intimidate and silence journalists, activists, and watchdogs. These legal threats, often lacking merit, are designed not to win in court but to drain resources, cause psychological distress, and deter public interest journalism. UNESCO highlights the pressing need to raise awareness about SLAPPs as a crucial step toward journalist safety. In a recent initiative focused on North Macedonia, UNESCO emphasized the importance of educating the judiciary and the general public about SLAPP dynamics. It recommends collaborative actions with...

21 December 2024 - Turkey/Syria -  Turkish journalist Özlem Gürses was detained on December 20, 2024, after remarks made during a YouTube livestream were interpreted as critical of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). In her statement, she referred to the TSK-Syrian National Army structure in a context that some perceived as associating it with ISIS. This triggered immediate legal action, with prosecutors charging her under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for “insulting state institutions” and under Article 217/A for “publicly disseminating misleading information.” These provisions, frequently used to silence dissenting voices in Turkey,...

December 20, 2024 - Afghanistan - Afghanistan has reached a historic nadir in press freedom as the Taliban has intensified its crackdown on independent media. According to Reporters Without Borders, at least twelve television and one radio station were forcibly shut down in 2024. Among these, Arezo TV in Kabul endured a raid by the General Intelligence Directorate, supported by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, resulting in the arrest of seven staffers, including the bureau chief, and the seizure of equipment. This campaign has focused on content deemed “transgressive”...