Overview of content:
Further reading
All manuals can be downloaded
Upcoming events
Dear colleagues
By Mónica Orjuela, journalist and communications officer at MHHRI
What was once a symbol of protection, the blue press vest has now turned into a target in war zones, a clear signal that journalists are under threat rather than shielded.
Journalists are our eyes in a world challenged by war and conflict. They report from the genocides in Gaza and Sudan, from climate driven natural disasters, and from places ruled by criminal groups and authoritarian regimes. They give voice to victims, and bear witness to both the worst and the best of humanity. These are challenging times, journalist must be protected from attack, and guaranteed access to psychological care and health support.
This year, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) documented the highest number of media workers killed since it began collecting such data three decades ago. Reporters Without Borders reports that 220 Gazan journalists have been killed by Israeli forces during nearly 23 months of genocide. Those who survived the bombings are caught between staying alive and fulfilling their duty to report. Many have buried their own families and become the very subjects of the tragedies they cover.
In other countries like Pakistan, Sudan, Mexico, Syria, and Myanmar, journalists have been killed simply for doing their jobs. Additionally, the number of journalists imprisoned increased in 2024, with the highest figures reported in China, Israel, Russia, Belarus, and Myanmar. Kidnappings remain a grave threat as well, and last year nearly 100 were reported missing across 34 countries.
Even in the United States, Donald Trump has called journalists “enemies of the people” during his first term and is now pursuing personal defamation lawsuits against several news organisations. Tactics that are widely viewed as attempts to intimidate and pressure the media.
Countries such as the United States, Israel, and Morocco restricting the entry of international journalists, further undermine freedom of expression and the public’s right to information. In Afghanistan, where the free press has been completely dismantled, international media outlets rely on women journalists who works in hiding, conduct secret interviews, and live with the constant threat of being discovered by the Taliban.
Constant exposure to trauma and violence leaves deep but often invisible scars. The mental health of these journalists is an issue that can no longer be ignored, the intense pressure they and their families endure takes a heavy toll. Protecting them is a collective responsibility. We must raise our voices and demand that governments respect journalists as professionals and to also adopt policies that ensure that their psychological wellbeing is a priority, not an afterthought.
Further Reading: Journalists in wars and conflicts
Journalists who live in conflict zones or cover them, may see their mental health affected due to the emotional burden involved in documenting human suffering or even experiencing it them themselves.
Guide for psychologists in the emergency care of journa...
2024UNESCO
Media professionals face daily threats and aggressions ranging from assassinations, kidnappings, torture, arbitrary arrests and judicial persecution to disinformation campaigns, misinformation and harass-ment, especially on social networks. In recent...
Mental health tips and resources for journalists
2020Katya Podkovyroff Lewis
Covering these stories, whether major international stories or events much closer to home, can have an impact on those who do the reporting, leading to issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in some cases, but more likely anxiety, stress a...
Mental Health Resource for Journalists
2022IWMF
The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) today debuted a straightforward and practical mental health guide (‘A Mental Health Guide for Journalists Facing Online Violence’) to offer journalists support as they face an unprecedented surge of v...
Safety Guide for Journalists
2015UN
Those whose vocation and profession take them into dangerous parts of the world will never be entirely out of harm’s way, and safety is to a large extent a matter for journalists themselves, both collectively and individually. In the collective sense...
Safety of journalists covering trauma and distress R...
2022UNESCO
Fuelled by the demand for emotionally-driven human interest stories, while facing increasing competition with social media to attract the attention of readers, journalists can regularly find themselves on deadline and working closely with ordinary pe...
Mental health guide for journalists
2024Ma. Ceres P. Doyo Philippine Daily Inquirer
Journalists can be severely traumatized like anyone else. Their work can be so demanding that journalists might have to put up a front of invulnerability even while they are breaking apart inside.
Journalists and mental health: An API resource guide
2023 API
Journalists these days face stress from several directions all at the same time — they’re covering an increasingly violent world, they are the target of threats and harassment both online and in person, and they deal with mistrust from the public — s...
A Mental Health Guide for Journalists Facing Online Vio...
2024IWMF
Online violence is often only considered a digital safety issue, but the impact of online abuse on journalists’ mental health is significant and has serious consequences for them, their work, and for press freedom. This is particularly true for women...
Journalism in Exile Has Been Somewhat Romanticized’: Th...
c2025Global Investigative Journalism Network
Ahead of the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Malaysia, GIJN is publishing a series of short interviews with a globally-representative sample of conference speakers. These are among the more than 300 leading journalists and editors who w...
Global Media Defence Fund
2025UNESCO
The Global Media Defence Fund supports local, regional and global not-for-profit organizations working to bolster journalists’ legal protection and/or enhance media freedom through relevant investigative journalism and strategic litigation. Organiza...
2024 World Press Freedom Index: Political Pressure Thre...
2025Global Investigative Journalism Network
In what amounts to a key election year, where roughly half the world will go to the polls, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warns that political pressure is increasingly threatening journalism and the public’s right to know. In its 2024 World Press Fr...
News Graveyards: How Dangers to War Reporters Endanger ...
2025 Thomas J. Watson Jr. School of International and Public Affairs
Journalist Nick Turse (Fellow, Type Media Center) examines how, since the 2000s, national governments and terrorist groups – from Israel, Syria’s Assad regime and the United States to the Islamic State – have found ways to curtail conflict coverage t...
Observatory of Killed Journalists
2025UNESCO
This Observatory provides updated information on the killing of journalists since 1993 and on the judicial status of condemned cases since 2006. It also provides public access to country responses to UNESCO’s requests for information into the j...
Reporters Without Borders
RSF defending and promoting news and information throughout the world that is freely-reported, independent and reliable. Thanks to your generosity, RSF pursues and develops its projects all over the world in a completely independent manner.
Global Investigative Journalism Network
Investigative journalists are now on the job in more than a hundred countries, following trails and connecting with their colleagues in a more organized, more profound way than ever before. They have become, in effect, the “special forces” of global ...
All our gender-based violence manuals can be downloaded for free from the MHHRI website
Three gender-based violence manuals have been developed to support helpers working with women, boys and men, and children who have experienced sexual violence.
These manuals are available in multiple languages, enabling survivors and helpers to access the content in their preferred language while maintaining consistent headlines and numbering. This multilingual approach facilitates teaching when participants and trainers speak different languages. Each manual includes a toolbox of grounding exercises that survivors can use on their own, to manage emotions or in collaboration with a helper. Additionally, helpers can use these exercises for their own self-care.
Upcoming events
The European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health
Network of European societies and platforms of global health and tropical medicine. Hamburg, Germany 29 September – 2 October 2025
2nd Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies
International Conference on Mental Health, Human Dignity, and Climate Change: Mitigating Global Psychological Risk. his conference aims to foster a global dialogue on human dignity, humiliation, and the intersection of these themes with pressing global challenges, such as mental health and climate change. 27th – 28th October 2025, Lahore, Pakistan and Online
Children’s rights under pressure in a changing world: Need for a new research agenda?
The Symposium offers an opportunity to hear about current, cutting edge research by PhD’s and to work together on a research agenda.
16, 17 October 2025 – Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw, Steenschuur, Leiden.
24th Nordic Conference on Trauma Treatment
For professionals working with trauma-affected refugees. Copenhagen, Denmark November 20- 21, 2025.
Hong Kong Mental Health Conference 2025
Mind HK is excited to invite international attendees to the Hong Kong International Mental Health Conference 2025, taking place from November 6-8 in Hong Kong
7th Global Mental Health Summit, taking place in the vibrant city of Cape Town
With a focus on addressing challenges and exploring innovative solutions, this Summit promises to be a catalyst for meaningful change. Cape Town, South Africa, 10-12 November 2025
AGMHI conference
a unique in-person opportunity for participants to collaborate, exchange knowledge, and share innovative and sustainable practices that advance mental health care in Africa and the diaspora. November 17-19, 2025, Durban.
eMHIC25. Global Platform for Digital Mental Health
Join the world’s leading minds for three powerful days of collaboration, innovation, and action — November 19–21 at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto, Canada and online via eMHIC’s virtual platform.
4th Australia and New Zealand Refugee Trauma Recovery in Resettlement Conference?
This is a bi-national, sector-leading conference focused on refugee trauma recovery and resettlement practice, policy, research, and lived experience. It brings together practitioners, researchers, community leaders, and government stakeholders from across Australia, New Zealand, and beyond. 4-6 May 2026 at the ICC Sydney
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Welcome to our new subscribers, we hope you will find our content useful. The Mental Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject from a mental health perspective. You will receive our newsletter 5 times a year.
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Sincerely yours,
Take care – and we are wishing you all the best.
Sincerely yours,
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