Last year the record of journalists killed in the world was broken, with at least 124 in 18 countries, of which Israel is “responsible” for more than 70%, according to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ, according to their acronym in English), which published its 2024 report on Wednesday. This is the most “deadly” year since, more than three decades ago, this institution monitors the activity of reporters in the world. We are facing the “most dangerous moment in history to be a journalist,” says Jodie Ginsberg, executive director of the CPJ.
The war in Gaza – territory closed to the independent movement of the media after more than 16 months – is the epicenter of most of those deaths of reporters or media workers. The 22% rebound with respect to 2023 is essentially due to the 85 deaths of journalists who took place last year in the strip, “all at the hands of the Israeli army,” adds the CPJ. Of them, 82 were Palestinians. This organization has documented last year up to 10 “deliberate murders” of journalists by Israeli forces in Gaza and Lebanon.
The case of Mohamed Balusha illustrates this report well. He was one of those who risk his life daily in the strip to count the Israeli attacks. Some images, recorded for the Emiratí Al Mashhad channel, turned the world around. The bodies of several rotten and devoured insect babies lay in a hospital in the north of the enclave after these facilities were attacked and besieged by Israeli troops. He had managed to overcome the wall of silence that Israel tries to impose and, from that moment, Balusha himself knew that his life was in special danger. But he continued to go out to document the war.
It is in one of those coverage that a shot reaches him in the left leg and leaves him seriously injured on December 15, 2023, the day after he broadcast live to this newspaper Israeli attacks in the Gazatí neighborhood of Sheik Redwan. His teammates, who took a few hours to locate him, came to give him dead. Finally, he could be transferred on a plank to a hospital, where he was operated urgently and placed metal fixations in the femur. Those bars look out of his leg when, a few months later, he gets back in front of the camera. Meanwhile, Israel prevents its evacuation outside Gaza so that it can be properly intervened. “An attack that does not kill you, strengthens you, more,” wrote the reporter.
With virtually devastated health, especially in northern Gaza, Mohamed Balusha was very afraid that his wound could be infected. He told this newspaper in the last exchange of messages, in mid -October 2024. The reporter begged God that they could operate and the attacks ended. But, on December 14, Balusha, 38, was the victim of a new Israeli attack. This time the shot came from the air, through a drone, when he returned home to heal his leg supported on the crutches, according to the CPJ and testimonies of his surroundings. It was the definitive attack. The one that led him to the grave ending with another war witness. Leave woman, Fatima, and four children.
“The war in Gaza is not precedent in its impact on journalists and demonstrates a deterioration of global norms on the protection of journalists in conflict areas, but is far from being the only place where journalists are in danger” then “They are being attacked worldwide,” says Jodie Ginsberg, the CPJ director, according to statements collected in the annual report.
Throughout the more than 16 months of contest, with more than 48,000 dead in the strip, no journalist has managed to enter that territory without guardianship or Israeli authorization. Informators can get to the doors of Gaza, but not access. Israel only introduces in that territory sometimes from the hand of its military to counted reporters who limit themselves to seeing what the soldiers leave them. The CPJ recalls that “he has repeatedly advocated Israel and Egypt to open access and reiterate that call within the cessation of the current fire”, which entered into force on January 19.
At least 24 journalists worldwide were “deliberately murdered” for their work in 2024, according to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists. At 10 of Gaza and Lebanon, the 14 registered in Haiti, Mexico, Pakistan, Myanmar, Mozambique, India, Iraq and Sudan are joined. It is, according to the CPJ, a challenge to international laws that define journalists as civilians during a conflict.
After the Conflict of the Middle East, Sudan and Pakistan occupy, according to the CPJ report, the second place in number of journalists and media workers killed in 2024, with six each. The report also realizes that the death of independent journalists represents more than 35% (up to 43) of the total and, of these, 31 are Palestinians who worked in Gaza. Those informants Freelanceas they are known in the slang, they have “less resources and with a considerable risk for their own security.”
Mexico registered five murders in 2024, staying as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. The CPJ warns of “persistent” problems in that country to protect reporters. Meanwhile, the anarchy reigns in Haiti, where two murders of informants have taken place. There, his work is especially threatened by the “unbridled violence” of gangs, according to the report. After the overthrow in Syria de Bachar the Asad on December 8, this country has registered the death of four journalists.
“The increase in journalists’ murders is part of a broader trend to gag the media globally,” says Ginsberg. “Censorship prevents us from addressing corruption and crime, and making the powerful pay accounts,” he concludes.
