NEWS

Another deadly year for journalists
Palestinian reporter Shireen Abu Akleh becomes the 17th journalist to be killed while doing her job this year
13 May 22

Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

This week I was planning to write about the Queen’s speech, delivered this week by HRH Prince Charles, as the British Parliament began its new parliamentary session and the Government outlined it parliamentary priorities.  There are now six proposed pieces of legislation by the British Government that will impact our collective rights to both freedom of expression and privacy in the United Kingdom.  But my views on the ideological incoherence of the Government’s approach to freedom of expression will have to wait until next week.

Because today we mourn the death of another journalist.  On Wednesday, Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known and well regarded Palestinian-American journalist was killed while doing her job in Jenin.

According to Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) Shireen is the 17th journalist to have been killed in the line of duty in 2022.  Index has fought to defend the rights of journalists for over fifty years.  Every attack on a journalist is an effort to stop people speaking truth to power.  It’s an attempt to quash dissent and to impose a single world view.  And every death seeks to silence not just the voice of journalists but through them the voices of all of us.  We cannot allow those who seek to repress their populations to win.

Today our thoughts and prayers are with Shireen’s family and loved ones.  And as much as we mourn her today, we remember and honour the work and sacrifices made by her, her family and the sixteen other journalists who have lost their lives in 2022.

6 January – John Wesley Amady, Haiti

6 January – Wilguens Louis-Saint, Haiti

9 January – Pu Tuidim, Myanmar

17 January – Alfonso Margarito Martinez Esquivel, Mexico

5 February – Rohit Biswal, India

9 February – Evariste Djailoramdji, Chad

10 February – Heber Lopez Vasquez, Mexico

23 February – Maximilien Lazard, Haiti

1 March – Yevhenii Sakun, Ukraine

13 March – Brent Renaud, Ukraine

13 March-1 April – Maks Levin, Ukraine

14 March – Oleksandra Kuvshynova, Ukraine

14 March – Pierre Zakrzewski, Ukraine

15 March – Armando Linares Lopez, Mexico

23 March – Oksana Baulina, Ukraine

Late March – 2 April – Mantas Kvedaravicius, Ukraine

11 May – Shireen Abu Akleh, Occupied Palestinian Territory

Each of these brave journalists needs to be remembered and celebrated for their work and their sacrifice.  And their families need and deserve both the truth and, most importantly, justice.

By Ruth Anderson

CEO at Index On Censorship

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