A hundred and twenty-eight journalists, including four in India, were killed globally in 2025, the International Federation of Journalists said on Wednesday.
More than half of the killings of journalists (74) occurred in West Asia, the Belgium-based federation said. Forty-four percent of the journalists (56) had been killed in Gaza amid Israel’s war on the besieged Palestinian territory.
Eighteen journalists were killed during the year in Africa, 15 in Asia-Pacific, 11 in the Americas and 10 in Europe.
The list included nine accidental deaths.
In India, the federation noted the murder of journalist Mukesh Chandrakar, who ran the YouTube channel Bastar Junction, on January 1, 2025.
He was murdered for allegedly reporting on alleged irregularities in a road construction project in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district. His body was found in a septic tank on the property of the road contractor.
The federation said that 533 journalists had been imprisoned for their work during the year.
The Asia-Pacific region had the largest share of journalists who had been jailed. Of the 277 journalists jailed in the region, 143 were in China and 49 in Myanmar.
In 2024, the federation had documented 122 deaths of journalists and 516 having been imprisoned.
On Wednesday, the federation condemned the “persistent failure” of the authorities to protect journalists, and called for immediate and decisive action to end the violence.
Anthony Bellanger, the general secretary of the federation, said that 128 journalists being killed in a year was “not just a statistic, it is a global crisis”.
The killings were a “brutal reminder” that journalists are being targeted with impunity for doing their job, Bellanger said.
“Governments must act now to protect media workers, bring killers to justice, and uphold press freedom,” he added.
Since 1990 and the launch of the annual list, the federation has recorded more than 3,170 deaths of journalists globally, with an average 91 killings every year.
On December 10, the Committee to Protect Journalists had also said that 126 journalists and media workers had been killed in 2025. The global media watchdog is yet to publish an updated list covering the last 20 days of the whole year.
On December 23, the Free Speech Collective said that eight journalists had been killed in India in 2025.
Also read: A murderous milestone for journalism in year of media expansion but much less freedom
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