IBAHRI made the comments on United Nations World Press Freedom Day, marked annually on May 3.

Over the past two years, IBAHRI’s World Press Freedom Day statements have highlighted the rising numbers of targeted killings of journalists, as reported by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). In both 2024 and 2025, the CPJ recorded the “deadliest year for journalists” since the organisation began keeping records in 1992, with 125 and 130 killings respectively.

The first four months of 2026 have shown little sign of improvement with 18 journalists and media workers killed in work-related incidents, primarily across the South West Asia and North Africa region, including in Iran, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lebanon and Syria.Beyond targeted killings, media workers are increasingly constrained by legal and administrative measures that restrict access and reporting. In the US, recent restrictions affecting access to government institutions, alongside actions by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), raise concerns about undue limitations on press freedom and media plurality.

In September 2025, the US Department of War began requiring journalists reporting from the Pentagon to sign a pledge agreeing to limit their movements within the building and to refrain from accessing unauthorised materials; those who refuse face having their press passes revoked. The Freedom of the Press Foundation has described this as one of the “most serious violations of the press freedoms guaranteed by the US Constitution’s First Amendment”.

Similar legal restrictions have been imposed in other countries: in Vietnam, amendments to state secrecy laws in December 2025 now compel media outlets to disclose the identities of confidential sources upon request by state authorities. This undermines the protection of confidential journalistic sources, a cornerstone of investigative reporting. At the same time, the growing use of internet shutdowns in the context of anti-government protests in Iran and during elections in Uganda have impeded the ability of journalists to report on politically sensitive events. 

As journalists are targeted, so are the lawyers who represent them. A recent survey conducted by UNESCO found that a quarter of lawyers defending journalists have either personally experienced or know other colleagues who have faced “criminal charges and legal actions”.

This aligns with a study by the American Bar Association, Thomson Reuters Foundation and Media Defence that demonstrated within the last decade more than 40 lawyers from 10 countries that were defending media freedom have been targeted. The nature of this behaviour included: criminal suits, interference with client representation, obstruction of legal practice and threats of physical violence or murder. Not only is media freedom directly under threat, so too are the legal professionals carrying out their duties.