The year 2025 was the deadliest on record for journalists, with 129 members of the press killed worldwide; the highest number documented since the Committee to Protect Journalists began keeping records more than three decades ago.

In a special report published Feb. 25, CPJ said the spike marked a second consecutive year of record-breaking fatalities, driven primarily by one country: Israel.

“At a time when armed conflict has reached historic levels around the world, journalist killings also reached an all-time high primarily due to the actions of one government,” the report states.

Israel’s Central Role

CPJ found that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of all journalists and media workers killed in 2025.

More than 60% of the 86 journalists killed by Israeli fire were Palestinians reporting from Gaza, where, the report notes, human rights groups and United Nations experts agree that a genocide is taking place. “The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has committed more targeted killings of journalists than any other government’s military since CPJ began documentation in 1992,” the report said.

CPJ documented 47 cases in 2025 classified as “Murder” under its methodology; meaning journalists were killed because of their work. It is the highest number of targeted killings in the past decade. Israel is responsible for 81% of those cases, according to the report. Three killings, including one murder, occurred after the October 2025 ceasefire.

Conflict Zones and Rising Drone Warfare

Of the 129 journalists killed last year, at least 104 died in conflict settings.

Fatalities increased in both Ukraine and Sudan, with four journalists killed in Ukraine and nine in Sudan. In Ukraine, all four were killed by Russian military drones; the highest annual toll there since 2022.

In Sudan, where civil war entered its third year, CPJ documented what it described as a “trail of abuses,” including killings, rape of women journalists, media offices turned into detention centers, homes seized and journalists abducted and held for ransom. “In brazen disregard for the possibility of accountability, many of these acts were filmed and circulated by the perpetrators themselves,” the report said.

Drone attacks emerged as a growing threat more broadly. CPJ recorded 39 drone-related killings of press members in 2025, compared with two in 2023, the first year it tracked such cases.

Targeting, Impunity and Legal Violations

The report underscores what it describes as deliberate targeting, warning that the 47 documented murders likely do not capture the full scale of intentional killings; particularly in Gaza, where restrictions on foreign press access, destroyed communications infrastructure and mass displacement have made independent verification difficult.

“Very few transparent investigations have been conducted” into the targeted killings documented in 2025, the report said, and “no one has been held accountable in any of the cases.”

Such killings violate international humanitarian law, which stipulates that journalists are civilians and must never be deliberately targeted, CPJ said.

A Broader Decline in Press Freedom

CPJ linked the surge in killings to what it called a “persistent culture of impunity.” Journalists were also killed in Mexico, India and the Philippines, countries that have “persistently failed to secure justice for journalists’ murders,” the report said.

The organization called for “radical reform” in the way governments investigate journalist killings, including the creation of an international investigative task force and the imposition of targeted sanctions.

Beyond the fatalities, CPJ reported a wider deterioration in press freedom. A near-record number of journalists were jailed in 2025, often amid smear campaigns and legal actions aimed at criminalizing reporting. Online harassment and physical attacks continued to rise, including in countries considered democratic.

“Journalists are being killed in record numbers at a time when access to information is more important than ever,” Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Attacks on the media are a leading indicator of attacks on other freedoms, and much more needs to be done to prevent these killings and punish the perpetrators. We are all at risk when journalists are killed for reporting the news.”

“While reporting on war is inherently dangerous,” the report concludes, “Israel has shifted the paradigm in its deliberate and unlawful targeting of journalists.”