Almost 100 journalists killed and 400 imprisoned in 2023, says report
December 8, 2023
75% of all journalists killed across the world in 2023 were killed in Israeli war on Gaza, says CPJ
February 19, 2024
Last year was one of the worst years for journalists on record, with 79 journalists alone killed in the Israel-Gaza conflict. With other conflicts in Sudan and Ukraine, with a mass of elections happening globally, and an escalation of threats in countries such as Ecuador, the environment for journalists is increasingly hostile.
January 12, 2024 – Source: Publicmedia alliance –
On the day before New Year’s Eve, with journalists preparing for a third year reporting on the war in Ukraine, a Russian airstrike hit the Kharkiv Palace Hotel.
“There is an incredibly loud thud, the building shakes,” said Alica Jung, a reporter for German public broadcaster ZDF, who was staying in the hotel at the time. “I’m on the fifth floor of the Kharkiv Palace Hotel. When I open my room door, I don’t see the large open lobby – as usual – but darkness and black smoke. I don’t know if my colleagues are still alive or what part of this building is still standing. What I know straight away is that something has happened here and I have to get out somehow and find my team.”
Read more: Why newsrooms need to prioritise journalist safety in 2024
Ms. Jung said at least ten of the rooms in the hotel were being rented out to journalist teams. Fortunately, she and the remainder of her team were safe, although their translator suffered a broken rib and three broken vertebrae.
Sadly, such an incident was an only too fitting conclusion to 2023, a year in which the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported 120 journalists and media workers were killed.
Last year saw the deadliest conflict for journalists since records began in 1992, with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reporting that 79 journalists have been killed in the Israel-Gaza conflict since 7 October*.
The threats to journalists in the region have not abated since the new year. On 7 January, two more journalists, Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Moustafa Thuraya, were killed by Israeli strikes. The killings led Reporters Without Borders (RSF) to call on the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on Resolution 2222 – the requirement for countries to protect journalists during conflicts.
All indications suggest that the twelve months ahead will continue to provide countless challenges and threats to journalists. With an end to either conflict seeming unlikely any time soon, more casualties seem inevitable.
There are also those conflicts which occupy less space in the global media cycle. In Sudan, for example, RSF recently reported that journalists remain at risk from both sides of the civil war, with journalists threatened, beaten, and disappeared. Such risks materialised with the recent outbreak of violence in Ecuador, where armed gunmen stormed a TV news channel, and threatened the presenters.