By Quds News Network
Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that Israeli forces killed almost half of the journalists who lost their lives in 2025. The group reported that 43% of all journalists killed this year were kilked in Israeli attacks in Gaza.
The Government Media Office in Gaza also released updated numbers. It said Israeli forces have killed 257 Palestinian journalists since the genocide in Gaza began on October 7, 2023.
RSF said 67 journalists died in. According to the group, 53 journalists died in war zones or at the hands of criminal gangs.
RSF also described Sudan as an exceptionally deadly war zone for media workers this year.
In Mexico, organized crime groups drove a sharp rise in journalist killings. RSF said 2025 became the deadliest year in at least three years, with nine journalists killed. Mexico now ranks as the second most dangerous country in the world for reporters.
RSF noted that journalists face the highest risk inside their home countries.
Globally, 135 journalists are missing in 37 countries. RSF said 72% of them disappeared in the Middle East and Latin America, and that some have been missing for more than 30 years.
RSF director-general Christophe Deloire said the killing of 67 journalists this year did not happen by chance. He said they died because of their work.
He stressed that media criticism is legitimate when it pushes reform and protects press freedom. But he warned against hate campaigns targeting journalists. He said armed forces and criminal groups often create or fuel this hostility.
Deloire said impunity drives the violence. He argued that international bodies have failed to protect journalists and defend their rights in wars and conflicts because governments have lost the courage to act.
He warned that journalists have become “side victims, disturbing witnesses, bargaining chips, and pieces on diplomatic chessboards.” He said no journalist “sacrifices” their life for the profession. Instead, their lives are taken.
“Journalists do not die,” he said. “They are killed.”
10 December 2025
Source: countercurrents.org