At least 140 journalists have been killed in 2023 around the world. 81 of them in Gaza

2023 was the deadliest year in a decade for journalists, according to the Press Emblem Campaign’s (CEI) annual report, which recorded at least 140 violent deaths of reporters in 28 countries.

For the CIS, this is an annual increase of more than 20% compared to 2022, when 116 journalists were killed.

The Gaza Strip has become the region with the most killings of media workers in the world, with 81 people killed since the offensive between Israel and the Islamic group Hamas began on October 7, according to the non-governmental organization. until December 31st.

The report warns that this is the highest number of media casualties during the conflict in such a short time, with almost one journalist killed every day in the last three months of 2023.

CIS President Blaise Lempen said it was difficult to verify whether these journalists, many of whom are Palestinians working for local and foreign media, were deliberately targeted for their profession or whether they were killed in Israeli attacks.

In this regard, the organization called on the UN to launch an independent investigation to find out the exact circumstances of the deaths of journalists in the Gaza Strip, since “those responsible for these crimes must be brought to justice as quickly as possible.”

The situation has also not improved in some regions of Latin America, such as Mexico, which became the world’s second deadliest journalist in 2023, with a total of nine reporters killed. With five murders, Guatemala became the third country in the world with the highest number of victims of this scourge.

Another country highlighted in the CEI 2023 report was Ukraine, where a total of four journalists were killed in the war, the same number recorded in Israel following the October 7 attacks by the Islamist Hamas movement.

By region, the Middle East ranks first with 64% of deaths recorded in 2023, two-thirds of the victims, followed by Latin America with 20, Asia with 12, Africa with 11, Europe with four and North America with three.