RSF annual review 2025: 67 reporters killed, over 500 in custody
Journalists worldwide were also at enormous risk in 2025. This is mainly due to armed conflicts and organized crime: At least 53 of the 67 media workers killed in the period from December 1, 2024 to December 1, 2025 fell victim to wars or criminal networks. Almost half (43 percent) of the journalists killed in Gaza in the past twelve months were killed by Israeli forces, some of them targeted. And in Ukraine, the Russian army continues to target foreign and Ukrainian reporters. In Sudan, too, reporting has become life-threatening work, and in Mexico, criminal organizations have murdered nine reporters. In Latin America, almost a quarter (24 percent) of the journalists murdered worldwide were counted.
Worldwide, 503 journalists are imprisoned in 62 countries. Most media workers are still locked up in China (121), followed by Russia (48) and Myanmar (47). Russia also holds more foreign journalists than any other state, namely 26 Ukrainians.
RSF also looks at Syria in its annual review: One year after the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, many of the reporters who disappeared under his rule are still untraceable. This makes Syria the country with the highest number of media workers with an uncertain fate – more than a quarter of all missing people worldwide have disappeared there. They had been imprisoned under Assad, but were not found after the revolution and the opening of the prisons.
67 journalists paid with their lives for their reporting
Since the last RSF annual report of December 1, 2024, 67 journalists have been killed in direct connection with their work. At least 37 of them were victims of armed forces or paramilitary groups. 16 were killed by members of organized crime. The Israeli army is responsible for more than 43 percent – almost half – of the journalists killed in the past twelve months. In total, the Israeli army has killed almost 220 journalists since October 2023, including at least 65 directly related to their work, according to RSF information; some of them even targeted.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum took office a year ago. She had announced that she would work to protect reporters. Nevertheless, in 2025, more journalists were killed in Mexico than at any time in three years. The country remains the second most dangerous in the world for journalists, with nine murders this year alone.
Sudan is in the midst of a civil war, and journalists are exposed to the most serious attacks by various actors. Four of them were killed at work in 2025, and at least two died after being kidnapped by the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces.
Two of the journalists killed this year were foreign reporters who died outside their country of origin: French photojournalist Antoni Lallican was killed by a Russian drone strike in Ukraine. Salvadoran journalist Javier Hércules was murdered in Honduras, where he had lived for over a decade.
503 imprisoned journalists worldwide
Worldwide, at least 503 journalists were in prison for their work in 62 countries on the cut-off date of the RSF analysis on December 1, 2025. Most are imprisoned in China (113, plus eight more in Hong Kong): Year after year, China maintains its status as the country where most media workers are locked away. This is followed by Russia (48) and Myanmar (47).
The situation in Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Belarus shows the serious threats to press freedom in the post-Soviet space. In Georgia, the increasingly authoritarian political development led to the arrest of Georgian journalist Msia Amaghlobeli in January. There are currently 25 journalists in prison in Azerbaijan, including former RSF scholarship holder Sevinj Vagifgizi.
72 percent of missing journalists disappeared in the Middle East and Latin America
As of December 1, 2025, 135 journalists in 37 countries worldwide are missing – some of them for more than three decades. A total of 75 percent of the journalists currently missing disappeared in countries in the Middle East or Latin America. The cases are particularly frequent in Mexico (28) and Syria (37). In Syria, many journalists had been taken hostage by the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) or imprisoned by the Assad regime. But neither the fall of the regime nor the collapse of IS has so far led to the fate of these journalists being clarified – RSF now lists them as missing in its annual report.
20 journalists kidnapped worldwide
Of the 20 journalists kidnapped worldwide, seven were abducted by Houthi rebels in Yemen in 2025, more than in any other country. In Syria, after the fall of the Assad regime, the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) increasingly took control and continues to hold several media workers hostage. In Mali, two years have now passed since journalists Saleck Ag Jiddou, director of Radio Coton d'Ansongo, and Moustapha Koné, presenter of the same community station, were kidnapped by an armed group on November 7, 2023.
Information on the Annual Review of Press Freedom
In the Annual Report on Press Freedom, published since 1995, RSF documents the figures of the most serious attacks on media workers worldwide in the year that is coming to an end. In addition to professional journalists, this also applies to media employees such as camerawomen or sound technicians as well as citizen journalists, who play an important role in researching and disseminating relevant information, especially in countries with authoritarian regimes and in war zones. The annual balance sheet only takes into account cases in which RSF is convinced, after careful examination, that the listed cases have been victims of violence, attacks or repression in direct connection with journalistic activity. This explains possible differences between these numbers and those of other organizations.
The analysis covers the period between two RSF annual reports and therefore takes into account cases that became known between 1 December 2024 and 1 December 2025. This time adjustment, introduced with the 2025 report, is intended to ensure that violations in December of the previous year – which had not previously been included in the annual balance sheet – are also recorded. Accordingly, the annual balance sheet does not include acts of violence or arrests that took place after December 1, 2025. However, they are recorded in RSF's Press Freedom Barometer, which is updated regularly.
