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Tag: WAN-IFRA

  • Mathrubhumi to organise a one-day event on World News Day

    Mathrubhumi to organise a one-day event on World News Day

    Mumbai: Mathrubhumi on Monday announced plans to host an event on World News Day on 28 September at the Uday Palace Convention Centre, Kowdiar Gardens, Thiruvananthapuram.

    Speaking of the event, Mathrubhumi managing director M. V. Shreyams Kumar, who will deliver the presidential address, elaborated on why the centurion institution was associated with the international event, said, “World News Day is a global campaign to display support for journalists and their audiences organised by the Canadian Journalism Foundation and WAN-IFRA’s World Editors Forum. By associating with this event, organised as a part of Mathrubhumi’s centenary celebrations, we intend to reinforce our identity as the custodian of credible and fact-checked journalism.” 

    Media mavens, eminent journalists, and owners will deliberate on the way ahead for practitioners of credible journalism in our age of disruption. The subject is “Sacred Facts: Media in a Post-Truth World.”

    The Hindu former chief editor N. Ram, the doyen of Indian journalism, will deliver the inaugural address. The keynote speech of the first session on “Fact Punch: Curated Media and its Challenges” is by the Indian Express’s former editor Arun Shourie. The event will start at 10 a.m. with a welcome address by Mathrubhumi vice president of operations Devika Shreyams Kumar.

    The Times of India, Tamil Nadu resident editor Arun Ram; Outlook former editor Ruben Banerjee; senior journalist Seema Chisti; and Frontline editor Vaishna Roy are the discussants, with The Hindu, Delhi resident editor Varghese K. George moderating the session.

    The post-lunch session between 1.45 p.m. and 3.15 p.m. will be on “Counter Media: Narratives, Lapses in Reporting, and Self-Critique,” to be moderated by N. Open Magazine executive editor P. Ullekh. The keynote address will be given by India Today TV consulting editor Rajdeep Sardesai.

    Senior journalist Hari S Kartha will be on the panel, as will Madhyamam editor V. M. Ibrahim, social media activist Kiran Thomas, Asianet News Group editorial advisor M. G. Radhakrishnan, and media critic advocate Sebastian Paul.

    The concluding session between 3.45 p.m. and 5.15 p.m. will be on “The way forward: Is fact-based journalism a winning proposition?” featuring ABP Network CEO Avinash Pandey; Kairali TV managing director John Brittas MP; The News Minute editor-in-chief Dhanya Rajendran; Boom Fact Check managing editor Jency Jacob and Ananda Vikatan managing director B. Srinivasan. While the keynote speech will be delivered by The Indian Express executive director Anant Goenka, the session will be moderated by Mathrubhumi director of digital business Mayura Shreyams Kumar.

    All three sessions will be followed by audience-discussant interaction.

  • Mathrubhumi.com wins at Wan IFRA’s South Asian Digital Media Awards 2020

    Mathrubhumi.com wins at Wan IFRA’s South Asian Digital Media Awards 2020

    Kochi: Mathrubhumi.com the digital news platforms of mathrubhumi group was recently conferred with a bronze metal at South Asian Digital Media Awards 2020 jointly presented by Wan – IFRA, (World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers,).  

    Creating its impact in the industry the metal was honoured to Mathrubhumi under Best Data Visualisation. The article titled’ Lockdownil Pranayuviny Jeevanvechu’ highlighted and explained the difference in air quality in different cities after the lockdown was implemented. The article was selected for illustrating the quality of air in various Indian cities using graphs.

    Mathrubhumi executive editor (Periodicals & Digital) Ramachandran O.R said, "This award winning visualisation is on the unbelievable air quality changes happened during lock down period in India. It is based on the air quality data published by Central Pollution Control Board on their website. They took measurements of 6 air quality elements from 120 cities in India during the four stages of lockdown and compared it with the observed values of the same elements 30 days before lockdown. We analysed the entire data and took a subset of the data having measurements from cities of Kerala and selected cities outside Kerala and made a sun burst visualisation of this data. This visualisation reveals the rise in air quality happened in the cities of Kerala during lockdown. This conveys a positive message to our readers about the reasons behind the rising air pollution of the state and the need of keeping it clean. The whole package was the result of journalistic passion ignited with technology and team work”.  

    The South Asian digital media awards presented by Wan –IFRA, recognise publishers who have adopted digital media and mobile strategies as part of their total product offering to meet the major changes in how people consume news today. Wan-IFRA digital media awards are presented in every region across the world and the winners from each region subsequently compete for the world digital media awards.   

    South Asian Digital Media Awards are presented in ten different categories including best website, audience engagement, native advertising /branded content, paid content strategy, news literacy and Covid19 projects among others. Twenty judges from across the globe evaluated the entries and selected winners. The winners will be presented trophies and shall be honoured virtually at the upcoming Digital Media India 2021 Conference on 2-4 March, next year.

  • Quintillion Media network races to 30Mn+ monthly unique visitors; bags 15 awards in September.

    Quintillion Media network races to 30Mn+ monthly unique visitors; bags 15 awards in September.

    In a development that further bolsters its position as a top online publication and content creator, Quintillion Media, one of India’s leading and fastest-growing digital content platforms, won big at the recent WAN-IFRA South Asia Digital Media Awards 2018 and Digipub Awards. The group’s flagship products thequint.com and hindi.thequint.com took home prizes across 15 categories at both awards, including the ‘Website of the Year – General News & Features’ award in the English language category at Digipub. Bloomberg|Quint (BQ), a joint venture between Quintillion Media (74%) and Bloomberg Media (26%), won the ‘Website of the Year (Business)’ award in the English language category.

    In just three years since its launch, Quintillion Media has reached 1 million subscribers on YouTube and nearly 8 million followers on Facebook, redefining the digital news space in India. The platform has garnered more than 100 million pageviews and over 30 million unique visitors on its websites, along with 10 million unique visitors on YouTube in September. Quintillion Media also has a monthly reach of 170 million+ and nearly 1 billion impressions on Facebook, surpassing some of the biggest legacy media houses in the country.

    The Quint’s haul of 11 titles at the Digipub awards included Golds for ‘Best Use of Social Media (English)’ for the I Have A Question series; and for ‘Best Article/Video Feature’ for Bollywood Paparazzi. The Quint also won multiple Silvers, including ‘Best Innovation in Publishing’ for its Talking Stalking series and ‘Best Article/Video Feature’ for Rape is Consensual: Inside Haryana's Rape Culture. At the WAN-IFRA awards, Quintillion Media won awards across various categories such as ‘Best Branded Project’, ‘Best in Social Media Engagement’, ‘Best Innovation to Engage Youth Audiences’, and ‘Best Use of Online Video (including VR)’.

    Having established itself as one of the most popular channels for digitally-savvy Indian business news consumers, Bloomberg|Quint bagged the award for the best 'Social Media Engagement' at WAN-IFRA for its free, interactive, and opt-in WhatsApp subscription service All You Need to Know. As part of the service, readers are offered news snippets, podcasts, market updates, and breaking news through the messaging service, based on their interests and the topics they prefer to read about. The chatbot-style service and the hashtag-based search also allow users to check trending news, relevant stories, and stock prices in real-time.  Bloomberg|Quint and leading news and commentary portal Swarajya, both supported by Quintype (a company funded by Quintillion Media), won Bronze and a Gold at WAN IFRA South Asia Digital Media Awards 2018.

    Ritu Kapur, co-founder & CEO of Quintillion Media said, “We have consistently used technological innovations to transform the digital news space in India through our two platforms, Bloomberg|Quint and The Quint. The unique mix of strong, credible journalism and novel digital reporting formats has helped us achieve this amazing milestone and establish The Quint as the go-to-platform for young, digitally-savvy users to access high-quality and relevant news content. To be recognised at such a prestigious stage firmly consolidates our position among the leading online publishers in the country. Winning the ‘Website of the Year’ awards for both The Quint and Bloomberg|Quint just goes to show that audience engagement can be easily achieved through good quality content, no matter what the format is.”

  • Malayala Manorama bags Asian, World Digital Media awards

    Malayala Manorama bags Asian, World Digital Media awards

    NEW DELHI: Malayala Manorama has won top awards for best news website both in the south Asian and the World Digital Media awards.

    Organised by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA) with Google, the South Asian awards were presented in Kolkata recently, and the World Digital Media Awards in Vienna earlier this week.

    In the World Digital Media awards, there was only one Indian winner – Malayala Manorama of Kottayam in Kerala http://www.manoramaonline.com/

    Malayala Manorama is a large regional media house with operations in print, TV, radio, online, mobile & 50+ publications. The company has a journalism legacy that stretches back more than 125 years. 

    NDTV Convergence Ltd. won a record 10 awards.

    The winners of the inaugural edition of South Asian Digital Media Awards were announced and the winners were presented with trophies at the glittering awards ceremony at the WAN-IFRA in Kolkata. This year, the winners of South Asian Digital Media Awards were chosen from nine categories.

    The categories and the winners are:

     

    a) Best News Website      
    Gold: www.manoramaonline.com
    Silver: www.ndtv.com
    Bronze: www.onmanorama.com
    Bronze: www.indianexpress.com
    Bronze: www.amarujala.com

     

    b) Best New Product
    Gold: Gadgets 360, from Red Pixles Ventures
    Silver: News Beeps, from NDTV Convergence
    Bronze: Vixty app, from NDTV Convergence

     

    c) Best New Mobile Service
    Gold: News Republic App
    Silver: www.indianexpress.com
    Bronze: The Quint

     

    d) Best Digital Advertising Campaign
    Gold: The Quint – IAmShatterProof for Motorola
    Silver: NDTV Convergence – L’Oreal Paris Women of worth 2016

     

    e) Best Use of Online Video
    Gold: The Quint – The Wild West of Utter Pradesh
    Silver: NDTV Convergence – Shiksha Ki Ore Campaign
    Bronze: NDTV Convergence – L’Oreal Paris Women of worth 2016

     

    f) Best Entertainment & Lifestyle Mobile Service
    Silver: NDTV Convergence – Nirmal MyFit100Days

     

    g) Best Entertainment & Lifestyle Website Service
    Gold: NDTV Convergence – Nirmal MyFit100Days
    Silver: Times Internet – Happytrips.com

     

    h) Best Data Visualisation Project
    Bronze: NDTV Convergence – Dettol Banega Swachh India

     

    i) Best Reader Engagement
    Gold: The Quint
    Silver: The Hindu – sportstarlive.com – Ask Ashwin Contest
    Bronze: The Hindu.com – Tamil Nadu Election Campaign 2016`

  • Malayala Manorama bags Asian, World Digital Media awards

    Malayala Manorama bags Asian, World Digital Media awards

    NEW DELHI: Malayala Manorama has won top awards for best news website both in the south Asian and the World Digital Media awards.

    Organised by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA) with Google, the South Asian awards were presented in Kolkata recently, and the World Digital Media Awards in Vienna earlier this week.

    In the World Digital Media awards, there was only one Indian winner – Malayala Manorama of Kottayam in Kerala http://www.manoramaonline.com/

    Malayala Manorama is a large regional media house with operations in print, TV, radio, online, mobile & 50+ publications. The company has a journalism legacy that stretches back more than 125 years. 

    NDTV Convergence Ltd. won a record 10 awards.

    The winners of the inaugural edition of South Asian Digital Media Awards were announced and the winners were presented with trophies at the glittering awards ceremony at the WAN-IFRA in Kolkata. This year, the winners of South Asian Digital Media Awards were chosen from nine categories.

    The categories and the winners are:

     

    a) Best News Website      
    Gold: www.manoramaonline.com
    Silver: www.ndtv.com
    Bronze: www.onmanorama.com
    Bronze: www.indianexpress.com
    Bronze: www.amarujala.com

     

    b) Best New Product
    Gold: Gadgets 360, from Red Pixles Ventures
    Silver: News Beeps, from NDTV Convergence
    Bronze: Vixty app, from NDTV Convergence

     

    c) Best New Mobile Service
    Gold: News Republic App
    Silver: www.indianexpress.com
    Bronze: The Quint

     

    d) Best Digital Advertising Campaign
    Gold: The Quint – IAmShatterProof for Motorola
    Silver: NDTV Convergence – L’Oreal Paris Women of worth 2016

     

    e) Best Use of Online Video
    Gold: The Quint – The Wild West of Utter Pradesh
    Silver: NDTV Convergence – Shiksha Ki Ore Campaign
    Bronze: NDTV Convergence – L’Oreal Paris Women of worth 2016

     

    f) Best Entertainment & Lifestyle Mobile Service
    Silver: NDTV Convergence – Nirmal MyFit100Days

     

    g) Best Entertainment & Lifestyle Website Service
    Gold: NDTV Convergence – Nirmal MyFit100Days
    Silver: Times Internet – Happytrips.com

     

    h) Best Data Visualisation Project
    Bronze: NDTV Convergence – Dettol Banega Swachh India

     

    i) Best Reader Engagement
    Gold: The Quint
    Silver: The Hindu – sportstarlive.com – Ask Ashwin Contest
    Bronze: The Hindu.com – Tamil Nadu Election Campaign 2016`

  • amarujala.com among top three news websites of south Asia

    amarujala.com among top three news websites of south Asia

    NEW DELHI: amarujala.com, the website of the Hindi newspaper Amar Ujala, has won the WAN-IFRA award for one of the top three news websites in south Asia.

    Competing against big media houses across south Asia, amarujala.com’s victory signals two important trends: firstly, the fact that the industry is paying attention to the leading voices in Hindi on digital, and secondly, the fact that Amar Ujala’s focus on global standards of product and design is paying off. It may signal a completely different approach to the Hindi audiences, according to the World Association of Newspapers.

    Amar Ujala director Probal Ghoshal said: “Amar Ujala’s vision for digital media is built into its brand vision of creating a world-class experience for the Hindi user, wherever they are in the world. We are therefore creating rich and hyper-engaged media vehicles, which intend to bring the world to the local audience and carry the local audience to the Hindi diaspora. Our vision is integrated and interactive, and it allows brands to partner with us cross-media. We are expanding our media platform making it video-rich and allowing the user’s voice a part of the experience of the platform.”

    Amar Ujala relaunched its website early this year, making it fully responsive, with a clean design, new interactive features and non-intrusive advertising approach. Feature to feature, Amar Ujala has upped the game and matches the best of English news websites, even bettering them, in unique feature sets. This went against the approach taken by most existing Hindi news websites, which were focusing more on quantity of page views, and monetization through distracting and intrusive advertising.

    “As a cultural icon, Amar Ujala sets the standards for Hindi & so we’ve brought the best practices of global design & packaging with a focus on re-positioning Hindi & its audiences,” said Amar Ujala digital business creative and product head Arvind Joshi.

    WAN-IFRA chose Amar Ujala taking into account website design, product, innovation, and audience fitment. With the digital monetization of news space trying to go beyond display and network advertising, these innovations will lead the way for business strategy as well.

    Himanshu Gautam, business head, Amar Ujala Digital, explained the importance of the new website in the context of Amar Ujala’s business objectives, “This is just the first phase of our roll-out plan, aiming at creating new kinds of rich user experiences, which in turn create high-value monetisation opportunities. We refuse to commodify our users by linking our business with just page views.”

  • amarujala.com among top three news websites of south Asia

    amarujala.com among top three news websites of south Asia

    NEW DELHI: amarujala.com, the website of the Hindi newspaper Amar Ujala, has won the WAN-IFRA award for one of the top three news websites in south Asia.

    Competing against big media houses across south Asia, amarujala.com’s victory signals two important trends: firstly, the fact that the industry is paying attention to the leading voices in Hindi on digital, and secondly, the fact that Amar Ujala’s focus on global standards of product and design is paying off. It may signal a completely different approach to the Hindi audiences, according to the World Association of Newspapers.

    Amar Ujala director Probal Ghoshal said: “Amar Ujala’s vision for digital media is built into its brand vision of creating a world-class experience for the Hindi user, wherever they are in the world. We are therefore creating rich and hyper-engaged media vehicles, which intend to bring the world to the local audience and carry the local audience to the Hindi diaspora. Our vision is integrated and interactive, and it allows brands to partner with us cross-media. We are expanding our media platform making it video-rich and allowing the user’s voice a part of the experience of the platform.”

    Amar Ujala relaunched its website early this year, making it fully responsive, with a clean design, new interactive features and non-intrusive advertising approach. Feature to feature, Amar Ujala has upped the game and matches the best of English news websites, even bettering them, in unique feature sets. This went against the approach taken by most existing Hindi news websites, which were focusing more on quantity of page views, and monetization through distracting and intrusive advertising.

    “As a cultural icon, Amar Ujala sets the standards for Hindi & so we’ve brought the best practices of global design & packaging with a focus on re-positioning Hindi & its audiences,” said Amar Ujala digital business creative and product head Arvind Joshi.

    WAN-IFRA chose Amar Ujala taking into account website design, product, innovation, and audience fitment. With the digital monetization of news space trying to go beyond display and network advertising, these innovations will lead the way for business strategy as well.

    Himanshu Gautam, business head, Amar Ujala Digital, explained the importance of the new website in the context of Amar Ujala’s business objectives, “This is just the first phase of our roll-out plan, aiming at creating new kinds of rich user experiences, which in turn create high-value monetisation opportunities. We refuse to commodify our users by linking our business with just page views.”

  • South Asian News Publishers stress on digitisation & social media for growth

    South Asian News Publishers stress on digitisation & social media for growth

    NEW DELHI: Indonesia’s Kompas Daily was presented the WAN-IFRA World Young Reader News Publisher of the Year award in Mumbai today.

     

    Nearly 600 delegates from more than 30 countries gathered in the western metropolis for the opening of the WAN-IFRA India 2015 Conference & Expo, which focuses on growth and innovation for South Asian news publishers, who are emerging from two years in a difficult business climate.

     

    Former WAN-IFRA president Jacob Mathew, who is Malayala Manorama executive editor said the Indonesian newspaper “has had a major role in creating new citizens capable of sustaining their own freedom of expression and peaceful change of government, two basic elements for any democracy.”

     

    “They are also at the forefront of connecting to the young audience via social media with actions that serve the public, create some fun and teach about journalism,” he said.

     

    While South Asia publishers continue to increase their print business, they are also undergoing a digital revolution. The importance of print and digital together was addressed in the conference’s keynote address by Patrick Daniel, editor-in-chief of the English, Malay and Tamil Media Group of Singapore Press Holdings, who spoke about the importance of remaining relevant for a technology savvy population while keeping print alive and kicking.

     

    “Understanding the 24/7 relationship with the audience and knowing, reaching, connecting and engaging them will help transform our industry,” he said.

     

    The conference is accompanied by a biennial expo where more than 65 exhibitors from India and abroad are showcasing their production and services. Vendors offering products and services for the news media industry including printing presses, prepress equipment, editorial systems, archiving systems, digital media management and mobile app developments.

     

    The expo is expected to attract more than 1,500 visitors over three days.

     

    The conference includes three parallel sessions – a Newsroom Summit for editors, a Crossmedia Advertising Summit for advertising, digital and business development managers, and a Printing Summit for production managers. A panel discussion on ‘Censorship of media and the way forward,’ with India’s leading editors is part of the programme.

     

    Speakers include Zero Hora executive director of journalism and World Editors Forum Brazil president Marcelo Rech, Google head of strategic partnerships for South East Asia & India Dushyant Khare, Jonathan Halls & Associates principal Jonathan Halls, The Economist Group digital products revenue global head Ashwin Sridhar, News UK & Ireland Ltd category director – paper & energy Benedicte Gercke, Express Publications (Ceylon) Ltd. in Sri Lanka managing director Kumar Nadesan and AIM Group LLC founding principal Peter Zollman.

     

    WAN-IFRA, based in Paris and Frankfurt with subsidiaries in Singapore and India, is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. Its core mission is to defend and promote press freedom, quality journalism and editorial integrity and the development of prosperous businesses.

  • World media condemns murder of newspersons in India

    World media condemns murder of newspersons in India

    NEW DELHI: Several organisations within and outside India have condemned the vicious murders of three journalists in India and have called on the authorities to act swiftly to bring the perpetrators to justice.

     

    The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the World Editors Forum have written to the authorities in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to demand thorough investigations into the killings of Jogendra Singh and Sandeep Kothari, and to call for better protections for press freedom and the safety of journalists.

     

    The Delhi Union of Journalists and the Press Club of India have also asked the government and police authorities to act swiftly to bring the perpetrators to book in the cases of the murders of Jogendra Singh, Sandeep Kothari and Aaj Tak reporter Akshay Singh and to ensure adequate protection to mediapersons.

     

    Aaj Tak reporter Akshay Singh had gone to Madhya Pradesh to probe the Vyapam scam which has led to illegal admissions of thousands of students into higher institutions.

     

    He died in mysterious circumstances soon after interviewing the parents of a girl who had died in similar mysterious circumstances. The 36-year old mediaperson felt uneasy and was waiting for some documents when froth started coming out of his mouth and he collapsed. 

     

    The brutal murder of Jogendra Singh on 1 June in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, reportedly involved six policemen – accompanied by a mob of 20 people – who beat the journalist before setting fire to him at his home in front of horrified witnesses. After suffering serious burns, he died on 8 June.

     

    In a declaration made before a judicial officer shortly before he passed away, the journalist identified his assailants and charged they had carried out the attack on behalf of UP Minister Ramamurthy Varma.

     

    According to local media reports, the journalist had exposed land grabbing, illegal mining operations and sexual assault on women in Shahjahanpur, and had said evidence pointed to involvement of the minister, local police officials, and criminal gangs. The attackers who poured kerosene oil over him and burned him reportedly said they were teaching him “an extreme lesson”.

     

    State police reportedly allowed a story to circulate that Jogendra Singh had committed suicide, while a witness who had confirmed Singh was in fact set ablaze subsequently changed her testimony following his death. Local reports also suggest there was immense pressure on medical and forensic experts to support the suicide theory, along with his family.

     

    “We urge you to hand over the investigation to an independent team and to ensure the state government takes harsh actions as prescribed under law against those found to be responsible for Jogendra Singh’s murder, even – and especially – if the killers occupy high positions in the government,” said WAN-IFRA in a letter addressed to UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. “There is also an urgent need for you, as the leader of the government of the most populous state in India, to send a strong message that there will be zero tolerance for those who intimidate and attack journalists.”

     

    In a letter to the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan regarding the murder of journalist Sandeep Kothari, WAN-IFRA called for a thorough and impartial investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding his death. Kothari was kidnapped from Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh before his body was discovered in the neighbouring state of Maharashtra on 21 June.

     

    Kothari worked for the reputed Hindi-language newspaper Nai Duniya and was a freelance contributor to a number of publications at the time of his murder. Known for his investigations into the activities of the ‘mining mafia’, he had filed a variety of applications for sensitive government information under the Right to Information Act.

     

    His journalistic work had reportedly antagonised a number of people inside and outside of the state government, and Kothari had faced a barrage of criminal complaints.

     

    According to his lawyer, the journalist had been acquitted in 19 of the 20 cases filed against him. Local media reports have suggested Kothari’s murder was a conspiracy hatched by the ‘mining mafia’ that had come under close scrutiny as a result of his journalistic work.

     

    Many journalist groups in Madhya Pradesh have expressed concern over the murder of their colleague, particularly as police and state authorities have attempted to portray Kothari as a criminal before any investigation has taken place.

  • Golden Pen of Freedom awarded to journalists killed in the line of duty

    Golden Pen of Freedom awarded to journalists killed in the line of duty

    NEW DELHI: The Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom award of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), has been dedicated in 2015 to all journalists killed in the line of duty.

     

    “Since 1992, more than 1,100 journalists have been killed just because they brought the truth to light or manifested their points of view,” said World Editors Forum president Marcelo Rech, in dedicating the award during the opening ceremony of the 67th World News Media Congress, 22nd World Editors Forum and 25th World Advertising Forum in Washington.

     

    “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 of society with blood, and denies the right every citizen has to a free press,” Rech said to an audience of more than 900 publishers, chief editors and other senior newspaper executives from around the world.

     

    Statistics from New York based Committee to Protect Journalists show that 87 per cent (approximately 980) of those who have died since 1992 were local journalists. Overlaid with the deadliest countries for journalists during the same period – among them Iraq (166 deaths since 1992), Syria (80), Somalia (56), Pakistan (56) and Mexico (32) – the message is clear: local journalists, likely less well trained, financed, and supported, are covering beats foreign journalists can either no longer access, or to which their news companies are no longer willing to send them. The moral responsibility to better protect colleagues, wherever they may be, is indisputable.

     

    Conflict and war still account for a large proportion of the total number of recorded deaths. Where identifying as ‘Press’ might once have provided an element of protection, in the years since records began the dangers of doing so have become significant. Overall, 426 journalists have died covering war while an estimated 224 have lost their lives in combat or crossfire situations. A further 146 journalists were killed on dangerous assignments.

     

    Of particular note for WAN-IFRA and its community, 51 per cent of all deaths recorded since 1992 have involved journalists working in print media.

     

    WAN-IFRA has presented the Golden Pen of Freedom since 1961 to recognise the outstanding action, in writing or deed, of an individual, group or institution in the cause of press freedom.

     

    An exceptional award made to honour fallen colleagues and focus the international spotlight on the issue of safety and impunity for journalists worldwide, the dedication of the 2015 Golden Pen of Freedom to Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty aims to send a powerful message to the perpetrators of crimes against the media, as well as to legislators and those with the power to enact better laws and enforce stronger protections for news gatherers around the world.

     

    “There is no freedom without freedom of expression. And there is no freedom of expression without protection and safety for 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,” said Rech.