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Journalists around the world are facing unprecedented dangers for simply doing their job. And no place is more dangerous than the Gaza Strip. Reporters have been covering the Israel-Gaza war since it began after the terrorist group Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. By one estimate from Brown University’s Costs of War project, more journalists have lost their lives in this conflict than in the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the war in the former Yugoslavia, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined. The vast majority of them are local Palestinian journalists although two Israeli and six Lebanese journalists have also been killed.

Israeli officials repeatedly deny that the military is targeting journalists and say that some of the journalists attacked in Gaza were affiliated with Hamas or other militant groups. Press-freedom organizations, human rights groups, and international media outlets dispute this and have accused Israel of targeting these journalists to suppress information in Gaza. The Committee to Protect Journalists is even more blunt: “Israel is engaging in the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists that CPJ has ever documented.” 

In one recent attack, investigated and chronicled in the video report below, the New York Times reports that Israel Defense Forces struck Nasser Hospital, a medical complex in Southern Gaza, which was also a “well-established gathering spot for journalists.” In fact, the Associated Press had informed the IDF that its journalists were stationed at the hospital because it had a rare and reliable WiFi connection, which allowed them to transmit news. Nevertheless, the hospital was attacked twice within nine minutes, a so-called “double-tap” assault. The first missile killed a Reuters cameraman running a live feed, and as rescue workers and reporters rushed to the scene, Israel launched two more missiles at precisely the same location. The strikes killed at least 20 people, including four additional journalists.

Israel Defense Forces claim the strikes were meant to hit a camera Hamas had positioned there to track Israeli troop movements, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a “tragic mishap” that would be investigated.

You can view the report for yourself, but please note, it does contain scenes of graphic violence.

Palestinian journalists are also being threatened, intimidated and physically assaulted by Hamas, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The CPJ says Hamas has warned Gazan journalists not to cover the anti-war protests that criticize Hamas rule. One journalist says he complied because he had already been beaten and questioned for hours by masked Hamas forces once before. Several other journalists were also attacked by Hamas and called “collaborators” for covering Palestinian criticism of the Hamas government. “There are major violations committed by the Hamas government against journalists,” said Nasser Abu Bakr, the head of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. “The violations range from summonses, interrogations, phone calls, threats, sometimes beatings and arrests, to harassment, publication bans, interference with content, and surveillance.” The Committee to Protect Journalists also believes that Palestinian journalists are underreporting press freedom violations because of fear of retaliation by Hamas.

As you can see, journalists in Gaza could not be in a more difficult position. Since the beginning of the war, the IDF has barred international journalists from reporting on the conflict except for a small number of foreign reporters who are embedded with Israeli troops. That means local journalists remain the world’s primary source of information inside Gaza. They are living the war they are reporting on, dealing with multiple threats on a daily basis, and bearing the brunt of the risk to keep the world informed.  

Journalists have also been risking their lives to document Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since February 2022. At least 18 journalists and media workers have been killed there while reporting on the war. In fact, the first American journalist to be killed in the conflict, just days after Russia invaded, was an acclaimed photojournalist, Brent Renaud, who was filming people fleeing Kyiv for a documentary about the global refugee crisis for TIME Studios. He was shot in the neck by a Russian roadside sniper, according to local police.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that Russia regularly targets journalists and media outlets across Ukraine and recently used drones and missiles to attack three news organizations in Kyiv. Among the targets, Radio Free Europe and two local newspapers.

“Today’s devastating Russian attack on Ukraine, which damaged at least three media offices, is a stark reminder of the risks journalists face working and living in the country,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “The strikes show that journalists’ safety remains a major concern, regardless of how far they are from the front lines.” 

Even outside war zones, journalists are being murdered.

Mexico has been one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists with more than 150 killed since 2000—seven of them this year. Reporters without Borders says journalists are often “gunned down in cold blood” and blames collusion between corrupt government officials and organized crime.  The latest, Salomón Ordóñez Miranda, who was the editor and founder of a news outlet that covered local culture in the region northeast Mexico City, was shot by two still unknown assailants.

In Bangladesh, a 38-year-old reporter investigating local gang violence filmed several armed men attacking a young man. When the assailants realized he was a journalist, they chased him into a nearby tea shop and killed him with their machetes, according to Reporters without Borders.  Also this summer, a prominent Saudi journalist who reported on corruption within the royal family was executed after disappearing into state custody, where the CPJ says he suffered physical and psychological torture.

Law enforcement in many countries feels emboldened to attack journalists. In Indonesia, at least 16 journalists covering nationwide protests were beaten by baton-wielding police, while in Ghana, officers beat a journalist from Joy News and destroyed his equipment as he attempted to cover the demolition of a building in Accra. Three journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo were also beaten and detained overnight by police while waiting to interview the minister of finance in the northeastern city of Kisangani.

All these attacks occurred within the last three months alone—the list could go on and on.

What may surprise you is that violence against journalists is not just a problem overseas. According to the US Press Freedom Tracker, about 100 journalists have been assaulted on the job in the United States so far this year. The majority of the attacks occurred during anti-immigration protests.

Many of the incidents documented by the US Press Freedom Tracker involve law enforcement:  

Lake also believes federal agents targeted him with crowd-control projectiles that hit his stomach and groin as he filmed the scene. “It’s very disconcerting to see how free press has been trampled,” Lake said. “The best we can do is push back and make sure the truth isn’t run over.”

It really is that simple, and that dire: Protecting journalists means nothing less than protecting truth itself.  

In the United States, we have a long history of defending journalism. The First Amendment ensures that the press can report the truth freely without government interference. Journalists have a clearly recognized right to cover protests in public spaces, and courts have affirmed that police cannot target journalists simply for doing their jobs.

The most recent ruling is from a federal judge in California who ordered the Los Angeles Police Department and Department of Homeland Security to stop using tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray against journalists after reviewing more than 50 reports of federal agents targeting journalists reporting on immigration raids and protests.

When reporting in war zones, international law is unambiguous: Journalists are considered civilians and non-combatants in any armed conflict. They are protected by the Geneva Conventions and targeting them intentionally is a war crime, according to International Humanitarian Law.  

And yet, these legal protections clearly aren’t working. Why not? 

For one, the laws are rarely enforced. Around 90 percent of murders of journalists worldwide go unpunished, according to the Cost of Wars Project. A global failure to systematically investigate, prosecute and punish those who target journalists only encourages more violations of the law.  “Journalists do not die, they are killed; they are not in prison, regimes lock them up; they do not disappear, they are kidnapped,” observed Thibaut Bruttin, the Director General of Reporters Without Borders, adding that these crimes are “often orchestrated by governments and armed groups with total impunity.”

The world has turned a blind eye for too long. It is unacceptable that journalists who willingly accept dangerous assignments to keep us informed are losing their lives. Standing up to this threat will require a global effort.

So, what can be done? Here are four measures supported by international press freedom organizations:

1. Show zero tolerance for attacks on the press and end impunity for crimes against journalists by pushing the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute intentional attacks on journalists.
2. Improve journalist safety on the ground by expanding training, safety gear and security support for journalists covering conflict zones or authoritarian regimes.
3. Fund emergency assistance programs that provide safe houses, evacuation and medical or legal aid for at-risk journalists.
4. Expand monitoring and early warning systems to track attacks and spotlight abuses in real time.

Press freedom is our freedom, and violence against journalists is a threat to us all. We depend on journalists for accurate and reliable information, but when they can be attacked with impunity, this culture of violence becomes normalized and threatens the very foundation of a free and informed society.

We must do better.