A poignant remembrance service can be held in London this week to commemorate reporters, photographers and other media staff killed bringing the news from world wide.
The service at St Bride’s, Fleet Street – referred to as the Journalists’ Church – on the evening of 12 November will remember the boys and ladies who’ve died ‘on the frontline.’
St Bride’s has titled this 12 months’s service ‘Valiant for truth’, the name of a personality from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress “whose wounds are witness to his courage and steadfastness in dark times and who passes his sword on to those that will succeed him.”
Taking part can be Roula Khalaf, Editor of The Financial Times, Esme Wren, Editor-in-Chief, Channel 4 News; Caroline Gammell, Assistant Editor of The Independent; and Jodie Ginsberg, President of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The service comes days after Donald Trump’s resounding election victory. In the wake of this, the CPJ has called on the brand new administration “to recognise the free press and the factual information that journalists provide as a vital part of democracy, stability, and public safety.”
CPJ’s board of directors stated that it “stands firmly in defence of a strong press” that may hold power to account.
They add: “The fundamental right to a free press, guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, must not be impaired. Legal persecution, imprisonment, physical violence, and even killings have sadly turn out to be familiar threats for journalists internationally.
“They must not now also turn out to be commonplace within the United States, where threats of violence and online harassment have in recent times turn out to be routine.”
Reporters Without Borders, a global non-profit organisation that lobbies for press freedom compiles an annual index assessing press freedom world wide. It places the US at fifty fifth on the list of nations – down from forty fourth last 12 months – and the UK at twenty third up from twenty sixth last 12 months. The list is topped by Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
The charity estimates that 48 journalists have been killed at work this 12 months, and 575 are currently in detention internationally.
The safety and importance of a free media was one in every of the themes of the recent Global Day of Prayer for the Media. More than 2,000 Christians from 25 countries joined within the live-streamed 24-hour marathon. In the UK, the event was strongly supported by the Christians in Media network.
Prayer topics on the day included: “For strength and wisdom for journalists who face persecution in lots of parts of the world, as they seek to bring truthful facts and data” and that “media world wide be raised to its highest purpose, to be a vehicle for good, for edification and truth, for dignity and courage, and the flourishing of your world.”
St Bride’s Church has long been a spot where journalists’ lives and repair have been remembered. The church’s Journalists’ Altar carries photographs of the numerous reporters and photographers who’ve died searching for to report from war zones, or under repressive regimes.
The church has a Journalists’ Prayer used at many services. It reads:
Almighty God,
strengthen and direct, we pray,
the desire of all whose work it’s to put in writing what many read,
and to talk where many listen.
May we be daring in confronting evil and injustice,
and compassionate in our understanding of human weakness,
rejecting alike the half-truth that deceives, and the slanted word that corrupts.
May the facility that’s ours, for good or ailing,
all the time be used with honesty and courage,
with respect and integrity;
in order that when all here has been written, said, and done,
we may, unashamed, meet Thee head to head,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK, and a former communications director with the CofE.
