Need to halt killing of journalists

The killing of journalists has reached a frightening new peak, and the world cannot afford to look away. When the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced that 128 journalists were killed globally in 2025—more than half of them in the Middle East—it was not merely releasing another annual statistic. It was sounding a global alarm. As IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger rightly warned, this grim toll is a “red alert” for journalism and, by extension, for democracy itself.

Journalists are not casualties of war by accident; increasingly, they are targets. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Palestinian territories, where 56 media professionals were killed in a single year as the war in Gaza dragged on. Bellanger’s admission that “we’ve never seen anything like this” underscores the abnormality—and brutality—of the moment. When reporters are killed in such numbers, especially within a confined conflict zone, it signals not just the dangers of war reporting but a collapse of respect for international humanitarian norms.

The danger, however, is not confined to Gaza or the Middle East. Journalists were also killed in Yemen, Ukraine, Sudan, Peru, India, and other parts of the world. This global spread tells a disturbing story: truth-telling has become a high-risk occupation everywhere. From war zones to fragile democracies, journalists are being silenced through bullets, bombs, kidnappings, and intimidation. The message to the press is clear—report at your own peril.

At the heart of this crisis lies impunity. Bellanger’s condemnation of the lack of justice for murdered journalists cuts to the core of the problem. When killers are not investigated, prosecuted, and punished, violence against journalists becomes normalized. Impunity emboldens perpetrators—whether they are state actors, militant groups, criminal gangs, or political interests—who understand that silencing a journalist often comes without consequences. Without justice, the cycle of violence not only continues; it accelerates.

Beyond killings, repression wears other faces. The IFJ’s revelation that 533 journalists are currently imprisoned worldwide—more than double the figure of five years ago—shows how governments increasingly prefer prison cells to bullets, but with the same silencing intent. Detention, harassment, and legal intimidation have become tools to stifle critical reporting. Together, killings and imprisonments paint a bleak picture of a world growing hostile to free expression.

Why should this concern the global public? Because when journalists are attacked, society itself is the ultimate victim. Journalism serves as a watchdog, exposing corruption, documenting human rights abuses, and amplifying the voices of the vulnerable. Kill a journalist, and you kill a story. Jail a reporter, and you bury truths that citizens have a right to know. Democracies cannot function, and conflicts cannot be understood or resolved, in darkness.

The responsibility to halt this trend is collective. Governments must go beyond rhetorical commitments to press freedom and take concrete steps to protect journalists, especially in conflict zones. International bodies must enforce existing conventions that safeguard civilians, including journalists, during wars. Media organisations must invest more in safety training and support for reporters working under extreme risk. Civil society, too, must keep up the pressure, refusing to allow the deaths of journalists to fade quietly into footnotes.

Ultimately, the killing of journalists must be treated as what it truly is: an attack on truth, accountability, and human dignity. Each fallen journalist represents a story untold, a question unanswered, and a public left less informed. Halting these killings is not a favour to the media; it is a duty owed to humanity. If the world continues to fail journalists, it will soon find that silence, not truth, has become the loudest voice of our time.

Reuben wrote from Utako, Abuja

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