New York, Feb 16 (EFE).- At least 72 journalists out of nearly 100 reporters and media workers killed worldwide last year were from the war-torn Palestinian enclave of Gaza, according to a global media watchdog.
“More than three-quarters of the 99 journalists and media workers killed worldwide in 2023 died in the Israel-Gaza war, the majority of them Palestinians,” the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report.
“The conflict claimed the lives of more journalists in three months than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year.”
The CPJ said the 2023 global total was the highest since 2015, marking an almost 44 percent increase on figures from 20222.
“(It) includes a record number of journalist killings—78—that CPJ research determined were work-related, with eight more still under investigation,” the watchdog said.
At least 13 media workers were also killed last year.
The nonprofit said 74 journalists were killed in Israel and Gaza, three in Lebanon, two each in Cameroon, Mexico, the Philippines, and Ukraine, and one each in Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Colombia, Haiti, Honduras, India, Lesotho, Mozambique, Paraguay, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, and the US.
The nonprofit said if the deaths in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon were excluded, journalist “killings dropped markedly compared to 2022” when CPJ documented 69 deaths, 43 of which were work-related.
“Outside of the deaths in the Israel-Gaza war, 22 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide in 2023.”
However, the declining number is not an indication that journalism has become safer in other parts of the world, it said.
“The annual prison census found that 2023 jailings of journalists – another key indicator of conditions for journalists and press freedom – remain close to record highs established in 2022.”
The war between Israel and Hamas began after the Islamic group carried out a multi-pronged attack on Oct 7 that caused some 1,200 deaths in Israel, and kidnapped more than 250.
The Israeli Army launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that has so far killed more than 28,000 Palestinians. EFE
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