Source: WAN-IFRA
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
Journalists are strange professionals. We know how our job begins
every day but don’t know how it ends, usually not when the clock strikes
5 PM. We struggle to enter remote places where almost everybody wants
to leave. We talk even louder when authorities demand we keep silent.
And we use words as raw material, but rarely talk among ourselves about
the toughest moment in our profession. Today will be one exception.
For over half a century, the Golden Pen of Freedom has been a beam of
light that exposes atrocities against the press. Since 1961, this prize
has been awarded to dozens of reporters, editors, columnists and
publishers who have disappeared, been incarcerated, beaten, threatened
or made refugees because they insist on describing the reality around
them or on expressing their opinions.
In many cases - we will never know for sure how many - the visibility
given by the Golden Pen saved lives, freed prisoners, brought together
families torn apart. This sculpture has been awarded collectively on
only two occasions: in 1969, to the Czechoslovakian press that resisted
the repression against the Prague Spring, and in 2003, to the
Association of Belorussian Journalists.
In 2015, the World Editors Forum delivers another collective, and a
very special award, in honor of those journalists who gave their lives
in the line of duty. Sadly, there are many to be awarded today: since
1992, more than 1,200 journalists have been killed just because they
brought the truth to light, or manifested their points of view. Who is
responsible for their deaths? Dictators, death squads, fanatics,
terrorists and bandits of all kinds who can’t live with freedom of
information or respect opposing opinions.
The
tragedy of this massacre is amplified by a staggering statistic: in
nine out of 10 murders of journalists the authors remain unpunished.
Ultimately, this is the fuel that feeds the slaughter: impunity
encourages new crimes, tarnishes the whole society with blood and denies
the right every citizen has to a free press.
As a former war correspondent in the Middle East, the Balkans, Africa
and Latin America and also being from Brazil, one of the most dangerous
countries for journalists, I am especially gratified to be able to
bestow this honor on behalf of editors around the world. This award pays
homage to the great and heroic reporters that fell in the front lines,
killed by gunfire, landmines, explosions, attacks and terror when
accomplishing their mission to uncover conflicts, and thus trying to
shorten the suffering and the paths to peace. But this award also
recognize hundreds of anonymous journalists, many of them killed in the
silence of the night, ambushed on a dark street in distant villages in
Asia, Africa and Latin America. As the fallen on every continent, their
deaths should never be forgotten, as the martyrs of Charlie Hebdo will
not either. This abominable crime drove a stake into the heart of
liberty, reminding us that press freedom is a value that must be
nurtured every day, wherever we are.
There is no freedom without freedom of expression. And there is no
freedom of expression without protection and safety to the practice of
journalism. That is why we are here today, to celebrate freedom, and to
reaffirm our commitment to all those killed in the line of duty that we
will not falter, we will not let their sacrifice be in vain. Our answer
will be now and always, to strive for the highest ideals of journalism:
to denounce all forms of injustice and thus to contribute to a more
peaceful and to a free world.
To family members, friends and peers of the fallen, the news world
gathered here says thank you, and reassures its pride and devotion to
the profession they so honorably exercised. Our hearts are with you. And
our thoughts will be forever with our colleagues whose deaths shine as
eternal lights, illuminating the darkness that insists on trying to
exterminate freedom.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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