EU Calls for Full Probe Into Deadliest Year For Journalists Worldwide

(MENAFN) European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has issued an urgent call for full accountability over the killings of journalists across active conflict zones, warning that targeted violence against the press has reached a catastrophic threshold in 2025.

Speaking in an official EU statement issued Sunday to mark World Press Freedom Day, Kallas declared this year the deadliest on record for journalists globally — a grim milestone she said demands immediate international action.

"The killing of journalists and media professionals – as we have seen in Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and in the current conflicts in the Middle East, recently in Gaza and in Lebanon as well as in Africa - should be fully investigated and those responsible must be held accountable," she said.

Kallas cast a wide geographic net in her condemnation, explicitly naming Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, and parts of Africa as theatres where violence against reporters had become normalized — a trend she described as one in which killing, injuring or threatening journalists "become a shocking reality."

The EU chief also mounted a forceful defense of press independence, framing it as inseparable from democratic governance.

"International law is clear: journalists must be protected at all times. They must be able to carry out their work freely, without undue interference, fear of violence, harassment, intimidation, persecution or expulsion," she added.

Kallas further underscored that independent media is a "cornerstone of any democratic society" — positioning the EU's stance as both a legal obligation and a foundational democratic value that member states and the broader international community must actively uphold.

MENAFN04052026000045017169ID1111066103