ISTANBUL

A record 129 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide last year, with Israel responsible for two-thirds of the global total, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Wednesday.

The New York-based committee said 2025 was the deadliest year for the press, with the majority of those killed were Palestinian journalists and media workers killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

“Journalists are being killed in record numbers at a time when access to information is more important than ever,” CPJ Executive Director Jodie Ginsberg 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.”

CPJ said more than three-quarters of journalist deaths in 2025 occurred in conflict zones.

The committee noted an increase in the use of drones to kill journalists last year, with 39 journalists killed by drones, including 28 reporters in Gaza by the Israeli army.

CPJ said that nine journalists were killed in Sudan and four in Ukraine last year.

“The numbers were still very low compared to Israel, which remains a significant exception,” it added.

The committee said that the rising number of journalist deaths “is fueled by a persistent culture of impunity,” with very few transparent investigations conducted into the 47 cases of targeted killings of journalists in 2025.

“No one has been held accountable in any of the cases.”

It warned that the continued failure of government leaders to protect the press or hold their attackers to account “lays the groundwork for more killings, including in countries not at war.”

CPJ called for radical reform in the ways governments investigate journalist killings “in order to bring perpetrators to justice, including establishing an international investigative task force and imposing targeted sanctions.”

The Israeli army has killed more than 72,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000 others in Gaza in a two-year offensive since October 2023.

The assault was halted under a US-backed ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10. Despite the truce, Israeli forces have committed hundreds of violations through shelling and gunfire, killing at least 615 people and injuring over 1,600 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Israel has also escalated its assaults in the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war, killing at least 1,112 Palestinians and wounding about 11,500 others during the same period.