War Reporters’ Memorial in Bayeux: RSF pays tribute to slain journalists
The 2024 memorial stone at the Bayeux Reporters' Memorial was unveiled on Thursday, 10 October by Reporters Without Borders (RSF)’s Editorial Director Anne Bocandé, in the presence of the families and friends of journalists killed in the course of their work. An olive tree was planted as a special tribute to the journalists killed in Gaza over the past year, in the presence of Ola Al Zaanoun and Adel Al Zaanoun, correspondents for RSF and Agence France-Presse (AFP), respectively, in the Palestinian enclave.
The 2024 memorial stone at the Reporters' Memorial in Bayeux was unveiled on Thursday, 10 October as part of the 31st edition of the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for war correspondents. Engraved on the white marble are 57 new names of journalists who paid with their lives for their work informing the world from Palestine, Lebanon, and Mexico, among other places.
An olive tree was also planted this year in tribute to the over 130 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023, to honor their commitment to the right to information, which cost them their lives.
"More than 50 new names are inscribed on the new stone memorial for the journalists killed this year — killed because they were journalists. We shouldn't be here, at a memorial, because they shouldn't have died. But we must be. To continue their fight. To continue embodying their ideals of quality journalism let us tell their stories. Let us remember these tragedies. And let us strive to fight impunity. This is RSF’s commitment. Let’s be clear: these journalists didn’t die, they were murdered. We demand every perpetrator be held to account. Impunity for these crimes must end.
RSF's Gaza correspondent Ola Al Zaanoun and her husband, Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent Adel Al Zaanoun, spoke during the ceremony about what it means to be a reporter in Gaza, an isolated enclave where journalism has been silenced since the start of the war.
In Lebanon, three journalists were killed as the war in Gaza extended to southern Lebanon. One of these was Issam Abdallah, a Reuters reporter who died on 13 October 2023 from an Israeli strike. Issam's fellow journalists Christina Assi and Dylan Collins — survivors of the attack that claimed his life — and his sister Abeer Abdallah were present at the collective tribute.
Four journalists were killed in Mexico, a country often considered peaceful but where a climate of violence and terror has repressed journalism for decades. Luis Martin Sanchez Iniguez was one of these brave reporters: the local correspondent for the national daily La Jornada, he dedicated his life to exposing a reality that others sought to keep hidden. His daughter, Teresa Martin Sanchez Iniguez, recalled the precious values that journalists like her father, assassinated in July 2023, have left as their legacy.
"My father taught me, through his actions and the way he conducted his professional life, that honest, responsible journalism is the art of translating facts that would otherwise be forgotten into powerful words. It's the gift of exposing a reality that some want to bury, despite the consequences. It's risking your life to discover the truth and make it known, whatever the cost," said Sanchez Iniguez. She made a poignant appeal for the fight against impunity and a statement of hope shared by RSF: "Justice will win in the end.”
Inaugurated in 2006, the Bayeux Reporters' Memorial was built in partnership with RSF and aims to honor the memory of journalists and reporters killed in conflicts or murdered in the course of their work.
The 57 names engraved on the Bayeux 2024 memorial stone were journalists killed in the course of their work between 1 June 2023 and 1 June 2024, with the exception of six journalists who died at the beginning of 2023 and were added thanks to RSF’s investigations.
