Data from cpj.org identifies 2025 as the deadliest year for journalists on record, with Israeli strikes accounting for two-thirds of all media fatalities globally.
Israeli warplanes targeted and killed two broadcast journalists in southern Lebanon on Saturday, adding to a death toll that has made the current conflict the deadliest for media workers in modern history.
Ali Shuaib of Al-Manar TV and Fatima Fatouni of Al-Mayadeen were traveling in a vehicle near the city of Jezzine, roughly 40 kilometers south of Beirut, when the strike hit. An Anadolu correspondent on the ground confirmed the deaths, alongside a cameraman. The Israeli military later admitted to the killing of Shuaib but provided no immediate comment on the others in the vehicle.
This latest strike follows a grim pattern documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists. In a special report released via cpj.org, the organization revealed that 2025 was the deadliest year for the press since they began keeping records in 1992.
A total of 129 journalists and media workers were killed globally last year. Data collected from cpj.org confirms that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of those deaths.
The numbers aren’t a coincidence. According to CPJ data, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have committed more targeted killings of journalists than any other government’s military on record. In 2025 alone, cpj.org documented 47 cases where journalists were murdered specifically because of their work. Israel was responsible for 81% of those targeted killings.
Why does the targeting continue? Rights groups and media advocates argue it’s an intentional strategy to create an information blackout. By hitting the people who hold the cameras, the reality of the ground war stays hidden from the global public.
“Israel has shifted the paradigm in its deliberate and unlawful targeting of journalists,” the CPJ report stated. The organization also highlighted a surge in drone-assisted killings. In 2023, only two journalists were killed by drones. By 2025, that number skyrocketed to 39—with Israel responsible for 28 of those in Gaza alone.
International law is clear. Journalists are civilians. They aren’t targets. But on the Al-Barad road in Jezzine, those protections didn’t matter.
The strike in Jezzine happened as Israel launched a massive wave of attacks across 42 towns and cities in Lebanon. Since this specific offensive began on March 2, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reports 1,142 deaths and over 3,000 injuries.
Is anyone being held accountable? To date, there have been no transparent investigations into the dozens of documented targeted killings. No soldiers have been charged. No commanders have faced a tribunal.
The silence from the international community is deafening. While France and some UN Special Rapporteurs have condemned specific strikes, the military machinery continues to operate with what advocates call “absolute impunity.”
Earlier this month, a British correspondent for Russia Today, Steve Sweeney, and his operator Ali Rida Sbeity were injured in a strike despite wearing clearly marked press gear. Sbeity told viewers from a hospital bed that they were standing in plain sight. They weren’t near a military target. They were near a story.
When a state kills the people tasked with documenting its actions, the truth is the second casualty. If the 2025 data and today’s deaths in Lebanon prove anything, it’s that the vest marked “PRESS” has become a bullseye rather than a shield.
The reporting continues, but the rooms where these journalists once sat are growing quiet.
