67 journalists killed and increased online violence against women journalists

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 09/12/2025

Two new reports confirm dangers that media professionals are facing. 67 media professionals have been killed over the last year, close to half of them (43%) in Gaza by Israeli armed forces, according to Reporters Without Borders (RsF). 70% of women journalists, activists and human rights defenders have experienced online violence in their work. Furthermore, 41% of them reported offline harm linked to online abuse, according to a report by by the European Commission and UN Women in partnership with researchers from The Nerve, City St George’s, University of London and the International Center for Journalists and in collaboration with UNESCO. 

 Of the 67 media professionals killed, 53 were victims of war or organised crime. In Mexico, 2025 was the deadliest of the past three years for journalists. 

503 journalists are behind bars worldwide. A year on from the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad, many of the reporters arrested or captured under his regime remain nowhere to be found, making Syria the country with the highest number of missing media professionals worldwide, RsF reports. 

Of 503 detained, 77 are women. The three largest prisons for journalists are China (121), Russia (48) and Myanmar (47)

20 journalists are held hostage. The three countries with the highest risk are Yemen (9), Syria (8) and Mali (2).

135 are missing. The three countries with the highest risk are Syria (37), Mexico (28) and Iraq (12).

“As key witnesses to history, journalists have gradually become collateral victims, inconvenient observers, bargaining chips, pawns in diplomatic games, men and women to be eliminated. Let us be wary of false notions about reporters: no one gives their life for journalism — it is taken from them. Journalists do not just die — they are killed”, writes Thibaut Bruttin, RSF Director General, in the report.

“For women journalists, the link between online abuse and offline harm has become more concerning. In a 2020 global survey published by UNESCO, 20% of women journalists associated the offline attacks or abuse they experienced with online violence. In the new 2025 survey – conducted by the same researchers a – that share of journalists and media workers has more than doubled to 42%”, says the international survey Tipping point: The chilling escalation of violence against women in the public sphere

The survey also finds that close to one in four women human rights defenders, activists and journalists have experienced AI-assisted online violence, such as deepfake imagery and manipulated content. 

Writers and public communicators (e.g., social media content creators and influencers) who focus on human rights issues face the highest exposure, at 30%.