ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Journalism continues to pay a very high price for the right to information: is what emerges from the report just published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) photographing a dramatic situation for the freedom of press and the security of journalists in 2025.
About 67 media professionals killed all over the world, almost half — 43% — found death in Gaza, affected by the actions of the Israeli army. The complaint of the international organization, based in Paris, highlights how the ongoing war in the Strip is producing a devastating human budget for those who document with their work the consequences of the conflict.
According to the report, at least 53 of the victims belong to those that RSF defines “critical practices by military groups and criminal organizations”. This adds a chilling data: about 220 journalists would have been killed by the Israeli forces since 2023, 65 of whom were targeted directly for their trade or while they did their work. Numbers confirming that exposure to danger has become systematic for information professionals in the area.
The report is not limited to the tragic dimension of the murders: According to RSF, Israel also appears as the second nation in the world by number of prisoners among foreign journalists, with 20 reporters imprisoned in 2025, as well as the 16 already arrested in the previous years in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
Outside the Middle Eastern context, the report denounces the extreme danger of chronicler work even in countries apparently distant from the theatre of war. Mexico is indicated as the second most dangerous state in the world for free press, with 9 journalists killed in 2025; China, on the other hand, would host the largest prison of journalists in the world, with 121 reporters behind bars. RSF stresses that journalists generally take the greatest risks in their countries of origin: almost all those who were killed were doing their job at home, except for two cases.
The report also denounces Egyptian cases of serious violations of human rights in conflict: In Sudan, for example, paramilitary forces killed 4 journalists in 2025, of which two kidnapped.
In Syria, there are still 37 chroniclers scattered among prisoners of the regime and seizure by groups such as the Islamic State. The analysis of RSF offers a worrying framework, which alarms international institutions, NGOs for press freedom and national governments: the protection of journalists in war zones or in countries with strong repression remains an urgent priority.
The relationship comes in a context of increasing global conflict, which sees war in the Middle East, the clash between military forces and militias, and the repression of civil rights as interconnected phenomena.
-Photo IPA Agency-
(ITALPRESS).
