Journalism has never been a more dangerous pursuit

A journalist holds the blood-covered camera belonging to Palestinian photojournalist Mariam Dagga, who worked for the Associated Press and Independent Arabia and was killed in an Israeli strike. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

It has never been so dangerous to be a journalist than now, and the threat keeps growing. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recorded 129 deaths of reporters and other media workers in 2025, the most it has ever recorded, and five more than the previous record, which was last year.

I have worked for the Guardian for more than three decades and covered some brutal wars, but journalists are now in the crosshairs, actively targeted, in a way I have never seen before.