The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on U.S. and international media outlets to address a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (IPJ) showing that a record number of journalists were killed in 2024, almost two-thirds of them Palestinians who were killed by Israel.
Of the 124 journalists who were killed in 2024, the CPJ report said 82 were killed in Israel’s Gaza genocide and three were killed by Israel in Lebanon. In at least 10 cases, CPJ says its investigation determined they were “deliberately targeted.” The group says it continues investigating whether at least 20 other cases may have been deliberate.
In its report, CPJ said in part:
“More than one-third – 43 – of all journalists and media workers killed were freelancers – another grim new record for self-employed members of the press who often face the most danger because they have the fewest resources. Thirty-one of those freelancers were killed in Gaza, rising from 14 in 2023. Many Gaza journalists became freelancers after their outlets were destroyed, their coverage proving crucial for global media outlets because Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering the Strip except on tightly controlled visits led by the military…
“CPJ only designates a killing as murder when its research indicates that there is clear evidence to suggest that the journalist was killed because of their work. Last year is therefore a year of particular concern because it saw an alarming rise in the number of targeted killings, including 10 by Israel. In 2023, CPJ classified one killing, that of Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah, as murder. Israel’s 2024 murders included the December 26 killings of four journalists and a media worker whose van marked ‘Press’ was targeted by an Israeli strike: Fadi Hassouna, Mohammed Al-Ladaa, Faisal Abu Al Qumsan, Ayman Al Gedi, and Ibrahim Sheikh Ali…
“In CPJ’s May 2023 report ‘Deadly Pattern,’ CPJ noted that Israel’s inquiries into its soldiers’ killings of journalists were ‘slow and not transparent,’ that it often accused journalists of being terrorists without credible evidence, and that after 22 years, none of the killers of the 20 journalists who died by Israeli fire has ever been held to account.”
In a statement, CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said:
“It is clear that the far-right Israeli government of indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu targeted media professionals who were exposing the genocide in Gaza. Journalists and media outlets in our nation and worldwide must honor their murdered colleagues by reporting the truth about Israel’s mass killings, destruction, ethnic cleansing, and forced starvation.”
He noted that CAIR has repeatedly condemned Israel’s attacks on journalists.
Last year, CAIR made a similar demand that media address an earlier report by CPJ showing that Israel and Haiti are the world’s biggest offenders in letting journalists’ murderers go unpunished.
A report in December by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) showed that Israel killed more than half of the then 104 media professionals killed worldwide in 2024 in its attempt to cover up its genocide of the Palestinian people.
Israel slaughtered more than 61,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and has destroyed most of the civilian infrastructure, forcibly displaced almost all of the civilian population, and imposed forced starvation.
END
CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com