A confirmed total of 189 journalists and other media workers lost their lives in 2024-2025, 20 percent more than during the previous biennium and the highest number since 2014-2015, according to the biennial report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

The impunity rate reached 86 percent in 2024-2025, its first rise in more than a decade, and 127 of the dead, 67 percent of the toll, were in conflict zones. Drone strikes killed 50 journalists, 40 percent of killings in conflict zones, a threat Unesco called disturbing.