On Wednesday, February 25, 2026, the Committee to Protect Journalists announced that 129 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide in 2025. This figure represents the second consecutive annual record in journalist fatalities and marks the deadliest year since the organization began collecting data more than three decades ago.
Jodie Ginsberg, the committee’s executive director, said in a statement: “Journalists are being killed at unprecedented levels at a time when access to information has never been more important.” She added, “When journalists are killed for their work, everyone is put at risk.”
According to the report, more than three-quarters of the deaths in 2025 occurred in the context of armed conflicts. The number of journalists killed in Ukraine and Sudan increased compared to the previous year, and the use of drone attacks against reporters also rose.
In Ukraine, four journalists were killed in attacks by Russian military drones, representing the highest annual media casualty toll in that war since 15 journalists were killed in a single year earlier in the conflict.
The committee noted a lack of transparent investigations into these killings and said that a prevailing culture of impunity is placing journalists at increasing risk. In Mexico, six journalists were killed in 2025, with all cases remaining unsolved, while three journalists were shot dead in the Philippines.
The report also states that others were killed for investigating corruption or organized crime, including a Bangladeshi journalist who was stabbed to death by suspects linked to a fraud network. Similar cases related to organized crime were recorded in India and Peru.
