Forty-five journalists died in the line of duty in 2023, fewer than the previous year, at a time when the conflict between Israel and Hamas is particularly deadly for the press. A report by the NGO Reporters Without Borders details that 13 reporters have died this year in the Gaza Strip “in coverage or deliberately because of their status as journalists,” but the total number of journalists who have died in the midst of the war, that is, since October 7, rises to 63: of them 56 in Gaza, 4 in Israel and 3 in southern Lebanon.
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Paradoxically, although the conflict between Israel and Hamas is proving especially deadly for journalists, The global number of reporters killed worldwide has never been this low since 2002, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
In 2023, 45 journalists lost their lives in the exercise of their profession, compared to 61 last yearaccording to the annual report of Reporters Without Borders, published this Thursday, December 14.
You have to go back more than 20 years to find a total lower than this year (33 in 2002), in which more than a third of the victims are related to the conflict in the Middle East, 13 of them in Gaza.
“This does not reduce the tragedy of Gaza at all, but there has been a constant decrease, far from the more than 140 journalists killed in 2012 and again in 2013”, mainly as a consequence of the wars in Syria and Iraq, he explained to AFP RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire.
Fight against impunity, the work of government organizations, NGOs and the media themselves or greater prudence are the causes of this decline, in his opinion.
The world count, as of December 1“does not include journalists killed off duty, those who were not killed as such, or those whose deaths remain unknown,” remembers Reporters Without Borders.
“War crimes”
The organization lists a total of “63 journalists killed” in the Middle East since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, on October 7, related or not to their profession. In addition to the 13 journalists killed “by Israeli fire” in Gaza, according to RSF, this war has caused the death of three journalists who worked in Lebanon and another in Israel, murdered by Hamas. In November, RSF filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court for “war crimes” committed against journalists in Gaza and against the Israeli journalist.
An AFP investigation, published last week, into the October 13 attack in southern Lebanon, which killed Reuters photojournalist Issam Abdallah and wounded six others, including the AFP photographer Christina Assi, aims at an Israeli tank shell.
Asked about it, An Israeli Army spokesman stressed that the place where the journalists were was “an active combat zone.”. These explanations are “unsatisfactory”, according to Christophe Deloire, director general of RSF, who believes that “there is much evidence for Israel to assume its responsibilities.”
Meanwhile, the Ukraine conflict cost the lives of two journalists in 2023among them AFP reporter Arman Soldin, “the only journalist who has lost his life in a country that is not his own” this year, out of a total of 11 since the Russian invasion, in February 2022.
“Self-censorship in Mexico”
The global balance for 2023 highlights the “significant decrease” in deaths in Latin America, with six journalists dead, compared to 26 in 2022.
Mexico, the deadliest area for the profession after Gaza, reported four deaths in 2023, compared to 11 the previous year. But this does not mean that security will improve for the press there, “as demonstrated by the three kidnappings of reporters and the armed attacks against four journalists at the end of 2023,” the report notes.
“Given the record number of acts of violence recorded in 2022, several journalists are more systematically calculating the risks to which they are exposed, which implies greater self-censorship and the proliferation of information black holes in the region,” adds RSF. Furthermore, the NGO points out that of a total of 84 journalists reported missing, almost one in three is Mexican.
The number of journalists detained in the world fell to 521, compared to 569 in 2022, and Belarus has become “one of the three largest prisons in the world, along with China and Myanmar”, while Turkey and Iran practice imprisonment reiterated, according to RSF. Finally, 54 journalists remain kidnapped, compared to 65 in 2022.
With AFP
Adapted from its French original
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