Israel’s targeting and killing of media workers across the region has has made this the deadliest conflict on record for journalists.
Since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 260 journalists, many of them deliberately targeted.
The press are also under attack in Lebanon and Yemen. In September 2025, Israel struck a newspaper office in Yemen, killing 31 journalists—the deadliest massacre of media workers in 16 years.
How does this affect us here?
- Palestinian American workers, as well as other Arab or Muslim workers, have reported being discriminated against in newsrooms. They face higher standards to achieve “neutrality” and are suspected of being too biased to do good work because of their identities.
- Our colleagues with loved ones in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, and other places in the region do live in fear and anxiety. Some have even lost family members themselves.
- Newsrooms have been censoring reporting about Palestine. These employers are shutting down the autonomy of rank-and-file reporters and producing biased work, which breaks down the trust they have with their readers.
- Journalists have been disciplined or even fired from their jobs for expressing their beliefs or “showing bias.”
Resources and further reading
- 2025 Survey from the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA)
- Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Notice a Troubling Change (Columbia Journalism Review)
- Journalists say U.S. newsrooms treat Palestine with fear and contempt (Prism Reports)
- A Reporter Was on a Flotilla Bound for Gaza. Israel Detained Him—and Some Twenty Other Members of the Press. (CJR)
- It’s Not Complicated (Sara Yasin, The Key magazine)