Paradoxical observation: While the conflict between Israel and Hamas has proven particularly deadly for journalists, with 17 of them losing their lives while doing their jobs, the total number of reporters killed worldwide has never been lower since 2002, according to RSF.
According to Reporters Without Borders' annual report released on Thursday, 45 journalists lost their lives in the line of duty in 2023, compared to 61 the previous year.
We have to look back more than 20 years to find a lower total than this year (33 in 2002), where more than a third of the losses are related to the conflict in the Middle East, including 13 in Gaza alone.
“This in no way reduces the tragedy in Gaza, but we are observing a regular decline, far from the more than 140 journalists killed in 2012 and then in 2013,” the secretary explains to AFP, mainly due to the wars in Syria and in Iraq General of the RSF, Christophe Deloire.
Fight against impunity, “work by intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, the media themselves” or “greater caution”… The causes are diverse and “are up for discussion,” he said.
The global count, which ended on December 1, “does not take into account journalists killed outside of their duties, nor those who were not killed as such, nor those whose circumstances of death remain unknown,” specifies Reporters Without Borders.
“war crimes”
The organization lists a total of “63 journalists killed” in the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7, regardless of whether they were related to their profession or not.
Specifically, according to RSF, in addition to the 13 journalists who died “under Israeli fire” in Gaza, this war caused the deaths of three working journalists in Lebanon and another in Israel who was killed by Hamas.
In November, RSF filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court about “war crimes” committed against journalists in Gaza and against the Israeli journalist.
An AFP investigation published last week into the bombing that killed Portal video journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six others, including the Portal photographer, in southern Lebanon on October 13. “AFP Christina Assi, seriously injured, points to an Israeli tank.” Sleeve.
Asked about the issue, an Israeli army spokesman stressed that the location where the journalists were staying was “an active combat zone.”
“Unsatisfactory” explanations, according to Christophe Deloire, who believes that “there are many reasons for Israel to live up to its responsibilities.”
The conflict in Ukraine, in turn, cost the lives of two journalists in 2023, including AFP reporter Arman Soldin, “the only journalist to have lost his life in a country other than his own this year,” a total of eleven since the Russian invasion February 2022.
“Self-censorship” in Mexico
The total number of deaths in 2023 is marked by the “remarkable decrease” in deaths in Latin America, where six journalists were killed, compared to 26 in 2022.
Mexico, the deadliest area for the profession after Gaza, has four in 2023, compared to 11 last year. However, this does not mean that security for the press is improving, “as demonstrated by the three kidnappings of reporters and the armed attacks on four journalists in late 2023,” the report said.
“With record levels of violence in 2022, some journalists are more systematically calculating the risks they face, leading to more self-censorship and the proliferation of information black holes in the region,” adds RSF.
In addition, of the 84 missing journalists, almost one in three are Mexican, the NGO notes.
The number of journalists imprisoned worldwide rises to 521, compared to 569 in 2022, with Belarus becoming “one of the three largest prisons in the world alongside China and Burma,” while Turkey and Iran practice repeat detentions.
Ultimately, 54 journalists are being held hostage, compared to 65 in 2022.