The Committee to Protect Journalists released a report on Feb. 12 stating 2024 was the deadliest year for journalists in CPJ history.
According to the report, “At least 124 journalists and media workers were killed last year, nearly two-thirds of them Palestinians killed by Israel.”
The toll is the highest CPJ has seen since the committee began documenting journalist deaths in 1992. The rise, driven by increased intensity of killings in the Israel-Hamas conflict, claimed the lives of 85 journalists in 2024, and 78 in 2023.
Global conflicts have also reportedly doubled in the past years. Sudan, Syria and Pakistan faced record-high deaths in 2024. Freelance reporters are also being affected, accounting for one in three killings worldwide. According to the report, five freelancers were killed in 2020, while 43 were killed in 2024. CPJ categorizes two types of deaths in their database: “dangerous assignment” and “murder.”
Afua Hirsch, a former foreign correspondent, journalist and USC professor of journalism, believes legacy media companies should not benefit from freelance work.
“Newsrooms are exploiting the competitiveness and willingness of freelance journalists to get stories without offering them the protections that they would have to provide for staff reporters,” Hirsch said.
She said this issue extends to aftercare, such as counseling and health rehabilitation, stating “many journalists suffer from PTSD after reporting on violent or traumatic stories.”
Matt Pearce, the former president of the media guild of the west, explained the objective of foreign affairs reporting.
“Governments and militaries have their own ability to reach the public directly,” Pearce said. “It’s easier to see journalists not as a medium that you need to work with [...] but as an impediment to your military and criminal objectives.”
Gabriel Kahn, a professor of journalism and former Wall Street Journal correspondent, also provided insight into the dangers of reporting from areas of conflict.
“Journalists in combat zones, sometimes being part targeted because they’re journalists, but also armies, soldiers, militaries not worrying about distinguishing between journalists,” Kahn said.
CPJ made a number of recommendations to improve journalist safety. Not only does the organization account for the death of journalists, but they also established an international investigative task force focusing on crimes against journalists. They also advocated for Israel and Egypt to open access to reports from the Occupied Palestinian Territory as part of the ongoing ceasefire.
Sandy Tolan, a professor of Journalism, Conflict and Foreign Affairs, understands the danger but acknowledges the fault of both administrations.
“The main safeguard for [Palestinian] journalists is simply impunity,” Tolan said “There hasn’t been any checks and balances with either the Biden administration and certainly with the Trump administration, to protect journalists so that they can do their job without fear of being killed or without fear of their family being targeted.”
The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is home to more than 2,000 aspiring reporters and media professionals, and about 200 experienced faculty members. Some say the field’s death toll is scary, but not shocking.
Ceci Mendez, a sophomore majoring in journalism, said she aspires to become a war correspondent in spite of the danger.
“It doesn’t make me want to change paths,” Mendez said. “I just think you have to be really careful, not that you can ever be preventative of those things happening because I think it’s all part of the job.”
Hirsch said if the danger must be an occupational hazard, access to mental and physical care must become a priority.
“I want a journalism [industry] that has more young journalists, that has more women, that has more minorities [and] people who are more vulnerable,” Hirsch said. “And therefore, if we’re going to have journalists like [them], we have to have a culture that takes safety seriously.”
A previous version of this article contained a spelling error in a source’s name. The article has been updated to correct this error.