Politics & Diplomacy
UNESCO: impunity for journalist killings rises to 86 per cent as drone strikes kill 50 reporters
UNESCO says 189 journalists and media workers were killed in 2024-2025 and that 86 per cent of killings go unpunished, the first rise in the rate in more than a decade.
Killings of journalists are going unpunished more often than at any point since UNESCO began keeping count, the UN cultural agency said on Monday in a new report that also flags drones as a growing danger for reporters in war zones.
According to the report, the impunity rate for journalist killings reached 86 per cent in 2024-2025, up one percentage point from the previous two-year period. UNESCO first measured the rate in 2012. The findings were summarised by UN News on 2 November, the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.
The toll in 2024-2025
UNESCO confirmed that 189 journalists and other media workers were killed over the two years, 20 per cent more than in the previous biennium and the highest figure since 2014-2015. A total of 127 of them, or 67 per cent, died in conflict zones.
By region, the Arab States recorded the most verified cases with 97, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (37), Asia-Pacific (34), Central and Eastern Europe (14), Africa (6) and Western Europe and North America (1). The State of Palestine had the highest number of killings in both years, at 30 and 32.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message for the Day that at least 34 journalists were killed over the past year and that six of every seven such killings go unpunished. In conflict settings, he said, the rate of impunity is close to 100 per cent.
Drones as a new threat
The report describes what UNESCO calls a “disturbing new threat”: the use of drones to kill journalists. Drone strikes killed 50 journalists in 2024-2025, equal to 40 per cent of all those killed in conflict zones. UNESCO documented seven incidents in which several journalists were targeted and killed in a single attack, including strikes on media workplaces and temporary reporting centres, and said 15 journalists were reportedly killed while wearing press vests or travelling in vehicles clearly marked “Press”.
UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany said journalists are “increasingly paying with their lives for reporting from the frontlines of war” and that those responsible are too often not held accountable. He repeated a call to respect UN Security Council Resolution 2222, adopted unanimously in 2015, which treats journalists and media professionals as civilians in armed conflict.
Some progress outside war zones
The report is not uniformly bleak. Impunity in non-conflict countries has continued to fall, from 94 per cent in 2012 to 77 per cent, a decline of roughly one percentage point a year, and the 85 killings recorded in non-conflict zones are the lowest number in 18 years. UNESCO said this shows that “progress is possible” when governments invest in investigations, prosecutions and protection.
Women journalists remain particularly exposed. Of the 14 women killed in the period, 13 were in countries experiencing armed conflict. UNESCO also cited a 2025 study by UN Women and the International Center for Journalists, which found that 75 per cent of women journalists had experienced online or offline abuse and harassment.
The Director-General’s report on the safety of journalists and the danger of impunity is published every two years to mark the International Day, observed each 2 November.
