A Report published by the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) to mark the International Day to End Impunity in 2025, marked each year with partners on 02 November

Introduction

2023-2024-2025: The deadliest years for journalists and media in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

With the escalation of the siege on Gaza, renewed clashes in Syria, the ongoing conflict in Sudan, and the intensifying repression in Saudi Arabia in 2025, journalists across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continue to face grave violations, including killings perpetrated by state forces, armed groups, or government authorities, often carried out with complete impunity.

As we mark the International Day to End Impunity on 02 November 2025, this report documents the killing of journalists over the last two years since October 2023. This day – marked worldwide every year by UNESCO – shines a light on the lack of accountability for the killing of journalists and media workers.

The situation in the Gaza Strip has been particularly catastrophic. Since the outbreak of hostilities, Israeli military operations have resulted in an unprecedented number of journalist deaths – many of them deliberately targeted, making the area the most dangerous place in the world for media professionals.

Alongside Palestine, countries such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Saudi Arabia remain among the most perilous environments for journalists, where reporting the truth can cost one’s life or freedom.

A recent example is the tragic killing of Anas Al-Sharif in August 2025, a prominent journalist who was widely respected for his courageous reporting on the severe humanitarian crisis and starvation in Gaza since the war began in October 2023. His killing as many others have sent shockwaves across the region. On 10 August 2025, Al-Sharif and five of his colleagues were killed by Israeli forces. The attack targeted a tent outside the main gate of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, where journalists had gathered. Among others killed were journalist Mohammed Qraiqea, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, as well as freelance journalists Momen Aliwa and Mohammed Al-Khaldi.

As the international community marks the anniversary of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, GCHR renews its call for increased protection for journalists across the MENA region, and for accountability in the face of these targeted killings. When those who kill journalists are not held accountable, the risks for the press grow even more deadly. Each journalist lost means one less voice uncovering the truth, leaving the public with fewer sources of vital information.

As 2025 draws to a close, the world remains an unsafe place for journalists and media workers who courageously report the truth amid conflicts, oppression, and injustices. Freedom of expression, a fundamental human right enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), continues to be threatened by governments and powerful individuals across the globe:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. – Art 19 Universal declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice. – Art 19 (Par 2) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

This right encompasses a range of freedoms, including freedom of the press, freedom of opinion, and even the right to conscientiously object to military service. Yet, in many countries of the MENA region, media freedom is under severe attack, precisely because of its critical role in promoting transparency and holding those in power accountable.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 124 journalists were killed worldwide in 2024. Alarmingly, nearly two-thirds (70% of journalists were killed by Israel in 2024) of these were Palestinian journalists and media workers, many of whom were killed or deliberately targeted by Israeli forces. Since October 2023, over 285 journalists and reporters have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA).

This sharp rise in journalist fatalities in the MENA region is attributed not only to the assault on Gaza, but also to related conflicts across neighbouring countries, where Israeli airstrikes have killed journalists in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iran. As well, journalists have been targeted during e internal clashes in Syria in the region of Suweyda in July 2025.

According to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the scale and intensity of these killings have made this one of the most dangerous periods for journalists in the history of modern journalism.

The situation becomes even more deadly when those responsible for killing journalists are not held accountable. Impunity fuels further violence, and as such public access to information will face an imminent risk. As the press is diminished, so too is the public’s access to independent, accurate information.

Today, the reality shows us that journalists bear the brunt of the conflicts in the region and their courage to tell the truth about the reality of the events puts their lives at risk every single day.

Their life is therefore marked by constant threats, targeted attacks, and profound personal losses.

Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, after arriving in Qatar for medical treatment, reflected on the relentless demands of his profession, writing on X that there was “no time to rest” and expressing his hope to continue his work despite the dangers.

For Palestinian journalists, the risks are deeply personal: Fatima Hassouna, the late 25-year-old Gazan photojournalist, captured the quiet beauty of her city in her final Instagram stories, noting poignantly, “It’s the first sunset in a long time,” before her life was tragically cut short. Similarly, journalist Anas al-Sharif, in a message composed to be released in the event of his death, revealed the heavy toll of witnessing violence daily, stating that he had “lived the pain in all its details” and “tasted grief and loss repeatedly.”

These voices illustrate the emotional and physical burdens carried by journalists in conflict zones. They confront not only the immediate dangers of war, bombings, and targeted attacks but also the heartbreak of seeing communities and sometimes their own families suffer and perish. In the MENA region, journalism is not merely a career but a form of bravery, and their sacrifices underline the human cost of bearing witness.

Every year, GCHR publishes a report on the International Day to End Impunity and holds an awareness-raising event to help shine a light on the journalists killed in the past year. This report includes new cases of journalists killed with impunity in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan.

Between 2024 and 2025, the targeting of journalists in Gaza reached devastating levels, exemplifying the extreme risks faced by media professionals in conflict zones. Among those killed, this report includes Hamza Al-Dahdouh, Rizq Al-Garabli, Mohammed Atallah, Hasan Abdulrahim Hamad, Fatima Hassouna, Anas Al-Sharif, Mariam Abu Daqqa, and Mohammed Salama, members of a broader group of more than 285 Palestinian journalists and media workers murdered by Israeli strikes since 2023.

In Lebanon, several journalists and reporters lost their lives due to Israeli bombings in Southern Lebanon. This report recalls some of these cases, including Ghassan Najar and Sakina Mansour.

In Iraq, Turkish drone strikes claimed the lives of two Kurdish reporters, Hero Baha Al-Din and Gulistan Tara, in August 2024.

In Yemen, 31 Yemeni journalists killed during Israeli airstrikes targeting the offices of the newspapers 26 September and Al-Yaman in Sanaa on 10 September 2025.

In Syria, journalists continue to pay a high price amid internal tensions and regional interventions. An Israeli airstrike in Damascus on 30 September 2024 killed Safa Ahmad. The situation has been further complicated following the formation of a transitional Syrian government, whose positions conflict with those of the Druze community. The death of Sari Majid Al-Shoufi, the first journalist killed in Syria in 2025, underscores the extreme dangers faced by reporters in conflict zones, particularly in areas marked by sectarian and tribal violence.

This report presents the photos of a group of journalists in the Middle East and North Africa who have sacrificed their lives for freedom of speech, so they must be honoured and memorialised.

In most of their cases, there has been total impunity for those responsible for abusing or murdering the journalists mentioned in this report. As we mark the International Day to End Impunity on 02 November 2025, we again call for justice in their cases.

Recommendations

Following up on recommendations made during previous events organised by GCHR to mark the occasion of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on 02 November 2025, GCHR calls again for immediate action as follows:

1. Calls on all government in the MENA region to respect journalistic work and to provide all kinds of support and protection to journalists who are overwhelmed with covering popular protests, those working in areas of armed conflict, or others who write with high professionalism about cases of corruption;
2. Calls on all concerned institutions to take note that in many countries, most of the murders and other criminal violations committed against journalists and human rights defenders by government agencies or extremist militias have been carried out by unknown persons yet to be identified – with the exception of the huge number of Palestinian journalists deliberately targeted by the Israeli authorities, who bear responsibility for their killings;
3. Urges an immediate and serious investigation in order to find practical and effective mechanisms that decisively end impunity in crimes against journalists in all countries in our region;
4. Urges governments and other relevant agencies work strenuously to hold accountable those who committed crimes against journalists and that perpetrators and masterminds of these violations will not remain unidentified and escape impunity;
5. Calls on all concerned parties provide proper protection to journalists in MENA countries and beyond so that they can carry out their work to the fullest extent;
6. Calls on all countries in the MENA region to adopt the recommendations of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.

Download the full report here with photos and descriptions of the journalists killed here: