The Israel-Hamas war has been deadly for reporters trying to cover the violence that has claimed more than 10,000 lives, including at least 40 journalists and media workers killed so far in Gaza, Israel and Lebanon in the first month of fighting.

The rising death toll for members of the media unfolded as the United Nations marked the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists on Nov. 2 with a stark warning that reporters around the world are increasingly under attack as they cover not just war but also everything from elections to protests and riots.

While so many civilians are dying in the war-torn Gaza strip, it may seem like a side issue to focus on journalist deaths, but it isn’t. Members of the news media risking their lives to shine a light on what’s happening in Gaza are among the only independent voices bringing reports from the rubble that aren’t coming just from official sources in Israel or Hamas. Also, tragically, for many journalists killed in the latest war between Israel and Hamas, multiple members of their families died with them.

What’s more, the media are not just at risk in war and crises. UNESCO released a report chronicling a dramatic increase in violations of media freedom by law enforcement agencies across the globe that have led in some cases to deaths and injuries for journalists trying to cover protests. Attacks against journalists covering protests, public demonstrations and riots were registered by UNESCO in at least 101 countries from January 2015 to August 2021, and since 2015, at least 13 journalists have been killed in such attacks, according to the UNESCO issue brief.

Moreover, assaults on reporters related to their covering elections were also widespread, with UNESCO registering 759 attacks against journalists and media professionals — including nine killings — in at least 89 elections in 70 countries around the world from January 2019 to June 2022, according to the report. Forty-two percent of those attacks were made by law enforcement agents, the report said.

This should sound familiar to Americans who saw members of independent media attacked and threatened by supporters of then-President Donald Trump during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the nation’s Capitol. It should be a warning, as well, of potential violence facing media during next year’s presidential campaign and general election

Journalists are dying at a staggering rate in the war in Gaza, but the killing of journalists was already on the rise before Hamas committed bloody atrocities against Israelis on Oct. 7 and touched off the latest Israel-Hamas conflict.

Journalist deaths rose to a new high last year, when 88 lost their lives across the globe, mainly in Russia’s war on Ukraine, but also in hot spots such as Mexico, the Philippines and Pakistan. Foreign correspondents bringing home objective coverage of these crises help Americans — and citizens of other nations — decide what policies, causes and funding to support.

The report also outlines the use by police and security forces of nonlethal methods — rubber-coated steel bullets, pepper balls and other crowd control measures — that often result in injuries to journalists. It also notes the majority of attacks on media covering protests are made by security forces, who often arrest, beat or humiliate reporters as well.

Their job is incredibly important and impactful in democracies, shining a light in places where, otherwise, people would be dying in darkness. They should not have to die to do it.

“Journalists must not be threatened, targeted with attacks or prevented from reporting freely at any time,” said Tawfik Jelassi, UNESCO’s assistant director-general for communications and information, marking the release of the UNESCO report. “We call on governments to take extra measures to protect journalists’ safety and to guarantee the right to freedom of expression and access to information, including during electoral periods. These two fundamental human rights are critical to the functioning of democracy.”

Last December, UNESCO released a report about other growing threats to silence news media professionals or impede their freedom of expression, including the “misuse” of judicial systems to attack press freedoms by expanding criminal and civil defamation measures, as well as intimidating lawsuits aimed at stifling free expression. It is incumbent on democratic governments and societies everywhere to heed the U.N.’s warnings and redouble efforts to fight back by demanding more protections for media and by insisting on more accountability for governments.

Even as America seeks to support allies embroiled in wars in Europe and the Middle East, the U.S. and other democratic nations must advance stronger policies, laws and litigation of their own to defend international standards for freedom of speech against growing threats to journalists and laws that criminalize expression.

The latest UNESCO report lays out recommendations for how governments can combat the problem, including providing better training of law enforcement agencies to work with journalists more collaboratively, understand their role and help keep them safe.

Americans should not be naive about this. The world is a dangerous place, and journalists have traditionally gone into harm’s way to cover the stories their readers and viewers need to know. That’s always been part of the job journalists accept. We know the risks.

But the number of journalists dying on the job — or at home when their world comes under assault by terrorists or aerial bombardment — is alarming, and it is growing disturbingly higher all the time. Truth is always the first casualty in war, but reporters are civilians and must not be targets.

Democracies that trumpet a free press and champion freedom of expression need to do a better job honoring those values by protecting journalists.

Storer H. Rowley, a former national editor and foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, teaches journalism and communication at Northwestern University. He is vice president of the Association and Club of Foreign Press Correspondents in the United States.