Journalists Died in Horrific Numbers in 2023: How to Keep Them Safer

Scores of journalists have been killed doing their jobs in 2023, and the year is ending as one of the deadliest on record for reporters covering conflicts. From Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Mexico, Syria, Ukraine and other nations, at least 65 journalists lost their lives in the line of duty, according to UNESCO.

The number of reporters and media workers killed in the Israel-Hamas war alone is staggering—at least 69 so far, by one account, as the year comes to a close--since Hamas terrorists massacred hundreds of Israelis on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated by launching an invasion and bombing campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that has killed thousands of people. Many media workers died on the job and others in the bombing campaign. By late December, they included three Lebanese, four Israeli and at least 62 Palestinian journalists, along with many of their family members killed with them, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

While the overall number of reporters killed this year has actually decreased compared to last year, the death toll for journalists who lost their lives in conflict zones this year nearly doubled compared to the past three years, UNESCO observed.

“But this overall drop conceals a very alarming phenomenon: the sharp increase in the number killed in conflict zones. However, it is in this very type of situation that the work of journalists is most vital,” declared UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, reiterating her “call to all actors involved to mobilize the necessary means to guarantee the protection of journalists as civilians, as stipulated in international law.”

Journalists around the world are not only at risk of being killed. They are constantly exposed to the dangers of dictators and autocratic governments who imprison them simply for doing their jobs. Worldwide, 521 journalists are currently detained on arbitrary grounds linked to their profession (down 8.4% from 2022), according to Reporters Without Borders.

Christophe Deloire, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, attributes the decline in journalists’ deaths to “Security measures at news organizations, training and allocation of protective equipment, caution, the effects of the fight against impunity and actions by inter-governmental organizations. The work of NGOs is undoubtedly also having an effect”

The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the USA (AFPC-USA) has called on governments, global agencies and human rights organizations to redouble their efforts to keep journalists safe around the world, protect free expression and hold governments accountable when they fail to do so. 

Journalists are civilians. They work in war zones and other dangerous places to bring independent, accurate and unbiased accounts home to readers and viewers, so they don’t have to rely on official government sources for information. We all know the risks, but when journalists are dying in such horrific numbers, it's painfully obvious more needs to be done by governments and combatants to ensure their safety.

Just to mention a few tragic examples from the latest Israel-Hamas war:

• Yaniv Zohar, 54, an Israeli photographer working for the Israeli daily Israel Hayom, was killed Oct. 7, along with his wife and two of their daughters, when Hamas terrorists murdered them in Kibbutz Nahal Oz in Israel near the Gaza Strip.

• Issam Abdallah, 37, a Lebanese videographer working for Reuters news agency, was killed Oct. 13 in southern Lebanon while filming cross-border fire between Israeli and Hezbollah forces. Abdallah died and six other journalists were wounded when Israel fired two tank shells in quick succession from Israel at their position, Reuters said. 

• Mohammad Abu Hasira, a Palestinian journalist working for Wafa, the Palestinian Authority-run news agency, was killed Nov. 7 along with 42 members of his family when his house was hit by Israeli bombing near Gaza City, Wafa reported.

October was among the deadliest months for journalists in recent memory. On Oct. 7, some 1,200 Israeli men, women, children and elderly were slaughtered by Hamas in the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and 240 more were taken hostage. Since then, an estimated 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians and 70 percent of them women and children, in Israel’s assault on Gaza. While the number of journalists killed in these attacks may seem small by comparison, they are significant, and it is unprecedented to have so many lost in such a short period. 

This appalling loss of life comes at a time when the risks for journalists have already been rising around the world, including a growing annual death toll as well as threats to free expression from governments using internet shutdowns, lawsuits, censorship and digital surveillance of journalists to keep reporters from doing their jobs. 

UNESCO recently released data showing attacks against journalists in connection with the coverage of protests, public demonstrations and riots were registered in at least 101 countries from January 2015 to August 2021, resulting in the deaths of at least 13 journalists. In addition, the UNESCO report found there were 759 attacks against journalists and media professionals covering elections, 42 percent of whom were assaulted by law enforcement agents, during 89 elections in 70 countries around the world from January 2019 to June 2022. The number of Journalists killed in the line of work rose to a new high last year, when UNESCO counted 88 killed across the globe, mainly in Russia’s war on Ukraine, but also in high-risk areas such as Mexico, the Philippines and Pakistan. 

Foreign correspondents bringing home objective coverage of these crises help the citizens of their nations decide what policies, politicians or funding to support. The work is invaluable and impactful in democracies, even more so in autocracies--shining a light in places where people otherwise would be suffering or dying in darkness. They should not have to die to do this work. 

“Journalists must not be threatened, targeted with attacks or prevented from reporting freely at any time,” said Tawfik Jelassi, UNESCO’s assistant director-general for communications and information, marking the release of the UNESCO report in conjunction with the Nov. 2 International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.

It is incumbent on democratic governments and societies everywhere to heed the U.N.’s warnings and accelerate efforts to fight back by much more publicly demanding greater protections for media and by insisting on more accountability from governments. The U.S. and other democratic nations must advance stronger policies, laws and litigation of their own to defend international standards for freedom of speech against growing threats to journalists and laws that criminalize expression. 

The AFPC is working with UNESCO to raise awareness of these horrific threats to journalists, find new technologies and methods to better keep journalists safe and explore ways to support and partner with like-minded organizations.

For example, the AFPC marked World Press Freedom Day on May 1 by awarding a $10,000 grant to Quinto Elemento Lab, a Mexican non-profit organization that investigates disappeared persons, impunity and corruption in Mexico, collaborates on local and international investigative projects and helps train reporters covering high-risk stories in dangerous places in better safety and investigative practices.

The AFPC is committed to raising awareness about the threats to press freedom, advocating with governments to do more to keep journalists safer and working with partners to defend freedom of expression around the world. 

It has hardly ever been more dangerous to do the job, and journalists at risk need support.