In the Line of Duty

Editorial:
Data released by the Committee to Protect Journalists confirms that the world remains a dangerous place to report on, politics even more so. In the first six months of the year, 42 journalists died covering news around the world. While some were killed because they were reporting from violent zones, most were murdered – killed because they chose to inform the people. There were deaths in genuine accidents as well, but every one of the 42 journalists met their end because they were thorough professionals. These are the figures for work-related casualties. Libya and Pakistan share the ignominy of being the most dangerous places for journalists. Disturbingly, while 27% of the slain journalists died while reporting from a war zone, an astounding 55% of the journalists killed were reporting on politics.
Violence stemming from political intolerance, it is now proven, claims more fatalities than even war. This, it needs to be clarified here, is only provisional data and could go up as more detailed information filters in. It is still a disturbing number, admittedly lower than past years, but still a worrying sign on how information continues to be stifled around the world. And these are figures only of the death-toll, and do not include instances of non-fatal attacks and other means used to stifle information.
Sitting in the safe environs of Sikkim, we share these figures not to eulogise the slain journalists as heroes, but to celebrate their commitment to the profession. They did not set out to become martyrs, but accepted the risks involved in recording events as they unfolded on the spot instead of waiting in safer zones to file reports fed by press releases. Some were killed because they wrote uncomfortable truths, but even this they did not do because they were activists, but because they recognized and lived up to their responsibility towards their audience and their times. Of the 42, save the few associated with big media houses, most of the slain journalists were not even known beyond their immediate regions or countries and were killed simply because they did their jobs well. Most will be forgotten even in their own regions before the year ends, but even as cold data, they will continue to prey on the collective conscience of the fraternity every time journalists start becoming lazy, quiescent, partisan or compromised.
We do not even attempt to list out the names of the fallen journalists because given the professionalism they lived by, they would abhor the idea of front-paging themselves as news and would rather be remembered for what they did and how they did it. The stories they filed might not have changed the world or even their immediate audience, but the fact that they still persevered to live true to the profession they chose for themselves should inspire journalists, as also everyone else, all over the world to remain true.