Journalists Killed in 2025: Global Toll, Türkiye’s Context

The killing of journalists remained a defining feature of global news production in 2025. According to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), 111 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide during the year, including seven women. While lower than the previous year, the figure still places 2025 among the deadliest periods for the profession in recent decades.

The distribution of these deaths points to a familiar but hardening reality. War zones continue to dominate the toll, while outside conflict areas journalists remain exposed to violence driven by crime, political retaliation, and systemic impunity.

The Middle East at the centre of the toll

The Middle East and Arab world was again the most lethal region for journalists. The IFJ recorded 69 deaths across the region in 2025.

Of these, 51 occurred in Palestine, overwhelmingly linked to the war in Gaza, where journalists were killed while reporting from active combat environments.

Yemen followed with 13 deaths, reflecting the prolonged danger faced by reporters operating amid sustained conflict and state collapse.

The scale of loss in the Middle East underscores how contemporary warfare has narrowed the space for independent reporting, even for clearly identified media workers.

Asia-Pacific: violence beyond battlefields

In the Asia-Pacific region, the IFJ documented 15 journalist deaths. These killings were not confined to war reporting. In several cases, journalists were targeted for covering corruption, political disputes, or local power structures.

The pattern points to a broader risk profile in which journalism itself becomes a trigger for violence, even outside formal conflict zones.

Europe’s count, and Türkiye’s case

Europe recorded 10 journalist deaths in 2025. Most were connected to the war in Ukraine, where frontline reporting continues to carry lethal risk.

The European total also included one journalist killed in Türkiye. Numerically, Türkiye does not rank among the most dangerous environments for journalists. Politically, the inclusion is still significant. It highlights that lethal threats can emerge even in countries where violence against the press is less systematic but where political pressure and polarisation remain high.

The IFJ’s Killed List records fatalities only. It does not capture arrests, prosecutions, judicial harassment, or economic coercion. In Türkiye’s case, these non-lethal pressures have long shaped the media environment and remain central to assessments of journalist safety.

Africa: conflict-driven exposure

Across Africa, nine journalists were killed in 2025.

Sudan accounted for six of these deaths, reflecting the extreme dangers faced by reporters covering the ongoing civil war. Additional deaths were recorded in other conflict-affected or politically unstable countries, where journalists operate with limited institutional protection.

The Americas: crime as the primary threat

In the Americas, the IFJ recorded eight journalist deaths. Unlike other regions, most killings were not linked to war but to organised crime, local power networks, and retaliation for investigative reporting.

This pattern reinforces a long-standing trend: in parts of the Americas, journalism remains one of the most dangerous professions precisely because it challenges entrenched criminal and political interests.

Impunity as the common denominator

Across regions, one factor consistently shapes risk: impunity. Journalists are killed in environments where investigations stall, prosecutions are rare, and accountability is delayed or denied.

Whether the perpetrator is a state actor, an armed group, or a criminal network, the absence of justice lowers the threshold for violence and normalises attacks on the press.

Beyond the numbers

The IFJ’s figures measure scale, not consequence. Each death represents lost reporting, silenced scrutiny, and diminished public knowledge. In fragile political environments, the impact is cumulative, weakening already strained information ecosystems.

For Türkiye, the 2025 data carries a broader implication. International evaluations of press freedom increasingly consider not only fatalities but the full spectrum of pressures facing journalists. Safety is read alongside legal, political, and economic constraints, shaping how countries are perceived well beyond their borders.

A profession under sustained strain

The 2025 death toll confirms a persistent truth. Journalism is not becoming safer. It is becoming more contested. In war zones, reporters face direct physical danger. Elsewhere, they confront violence rooted in power, corruption, and fear of exposure.

The question raised by the IFJ’s findings is no longer whether journalists are at risk. It is whether states are prepared to treat their protection as a core responsibility rather than a peripheral concern.

***Source: International Federation of Journalists, IFJ Killed List 2025.

Full report: https://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2025/12/09/111-journalists-killed-this-year-according-to-the-ifj/