August 29, 2024

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Journalists in the Crosshairs: The Dangers of Reporting from Conflict Zones

AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed

Over the past three years, journalist killings have increased significantly year over year. This is in part due to increased conflict, but also rising authoritarian governments and deepening divisions in society. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 50 journalists were killed in their line of work in 2020, with 45 killed the following year. These two years, noticeably during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed trends that began in 2019 with 52 journalists killed as the frequency of terror attacks and the pace of the global war on terror decelerated. Prior to that, from 2016-2018, the number of journalist and media employee killings was about 80 per year. While these numbers were higher in the 2012-2015 range, averaging 100 media professionals lost per year, the world is swiftly returning to this range, with a jump from 45 journalists lost in 2021, to 69 in 2022. In 2023, 99 journalists were killed, a 44 percent increase from 2022. 2024 is currently on track for similar, if not worse, numbers to 2023, with 43 confirmed dead so far.

It is important to note that these numbers vary depending on the source consulted, with Reporters Without Borders claiming as many as 144 journalists killed in 2022, a 38-person difference from the Committee to Protect Journalists database. These inconsistencies point to the difficulty in tracking journalist deaths; some are never recovered or died in a warzone but not while conducting their work, which databases may count differently. Mexican journalist Alejandro Martínez Noguéz, renowned for his work covering crime and law enforcement response in Celaya, was shot and killed earlier this month. Celaya, a city in central Mexico, is one of the most dangerous in the world due to ongoing drug cartel violence.

The region has seen several journalists killed over the past few years, resulting in less coverage of the extortion and violence the cartels, namely Santa Rosa de Lima, enact on the people of Celaya. The subsequent reduced coverage is two-fold; not only are there fewer journalists to cover the region, but the surviving journalists are also disincentivized to continue covering the criminal and cartel activity, acknowledging the high risk associated with covering those topics. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, and the federal government’s efforts to protect the press have been largely unsuccessful.

While Mexico is the deadliest country for journalists, other countries in the Americas also suffer from organized crime, censorship, and arbitrary detention, such as Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Venezuela, making those countries difficult and dangerous places for journalists to work as well. Maintaining the freedom and safety of the press is an ongoing challenge, with the political will to protect journalists decreasing internationally. Many politicians have turned to disinformation and generative AI, as well as the censorship of news outlets, often to influence election results. This is an issue around the world, with countries struggling to return to satisfactory conditions for journalism.

Government censorship has increased internationally, in countries well known for censorship and detainment, such as Russia, China, Vietnam, and Syria, but also in South America, as seen in Venezuela. Europe, while having the highest ranked scores for freedom of the press, is not immune to this issue; Italy struggles with politicians attempting to acquire and control news outlets. Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region are specifically struggling to limit Russian influence and repression of their news outlets, as seen in Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Kyrgyzstan, among others. Public trust and balanced reporting are key in these regions, as seen in Russia’s most recent attempt to spin the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk as an act of terror, instead of reporting it as an offensive attack.

The U.S. has seen a remarkable decrease in public trust in the media, with increased polarization and politicians advocating for journalists to be locked up, alongside running their own disinformation campaigns to influence public opinion. With 2024 being an election year and with the January 6 insurrection in recent memory, weaponization of the press can pose a significant danger to journalists in such a polarized society, as well as the public’s access to vital information.

In the mid-2010s, when journalist killings were at similar numbers as they are today, the deadliest region was the Middle East, notably in Iraq and Syria. This region is still unsafe for press freedom with journalists being detained, held hostage, and gone missing with high frequency. The Middle East remains one of the deadliest regions, with the Palestinian territories being the most dangerous part of the world for the press in 2023. According to investigations from the CPJ, at least 116 journalists and media workers have been killed since the beginning of the war in Gaza.

An increase in journalist killings and detainments, especially in countries that are not at war, points to a disregard for freedom of the press and a rise in authoritarian rule. Journalists provide necessary contextualization of world events and are crucial to resist disinformation campaigns; without them, power can be more easily abused, and civilians are at higher risk of mistreatment without intervention. The decline in the safety and freedom of the press internationally since 2022 is an indicator of decreasing human rights, freedoms, and security more broadly, as seen in Afghanistan, Russia, and Iran, among other countries.