The CPJ found that Israel is holding 43 journalists in detention amid the Gaza war [GETTY]
Israel, China and Myanmar were the top three countries detaining journalists in 2024 – according to a report by press freedom organisation Committee to Protect Journalists.
Israel has 43 journalists in detention while China has 50 and Myanmar 35. Belarus and Russia came fourth and fifth respectively.
The CPJ said that while Israel “rarely appeared” at the top of its list of offenders, following its war on Gaza, its detentions have doubled as it tries to silence coverage of its war, and arrests are at their highest since the organisation began documenting.
Israel has arrested a total of 75 journalists in Palestine, with 43 in Israeli custody on 1 December 2024.
At least 10 journalists were held in the occupied West Bank under administrative detention, where the army is allowed to detain someone without charge for 90 days, which can be extended an unlimited number of times.
Journalists are also held under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows Israeli forces to hold detainees for long periods without charges with limited access to legal counsel.
CPJ also noted Israeli human rights group B’Tselem’s findings on the treatment of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons. Detainees are subjected to violence, sexual assault, humiliation and degradation and deliberate starvation.
“The journalists’ detentions are symptomatic of Israel’s broader effort to prevent coverage of its actions in Gaza,” CPJ said in its report.
Israeli police also arrested journalists because they had contacted or interviewed people Israel wanted information about – lawyers told the organisation.
CPJ also highlighted how foreign correspondents are prevented from entering Palestine. The report also mentions Israel’s banning of Al Jazeera from operating in Israel and the occupied West Bank over its coverage of the genocide – which was done under a wartime law allowing Israel to shut down a foreign outlet over threats to national security.
Israel’s war has also been the deadliest conflict for journalists as of the start of 2025, with the organisation’s investigations showing at least 166 journalists and media workers were killed in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since Israel’s offensive began.
CPJ documented its second-highest number of journalists behind bars – with a global total of at least 361 detained on 1 December 2024. At least 370 were arrested in 2022.
The organisation found the “primary drivers” of journalists being imprisoned in 2024 were ongoing authoritarian repression in countries such as China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Belarus, and Russia; conflicts such as Israel’s war on Gaza and Russia’s war on Ukraine economic instability in countries such as Egypt, Nicaragua, and Bangladesh.
