It all starts with the names. Slowly at first, then picking up speed in a hypnotic digital art installation, the names of hundreds of journalists killed in the line of duty appear on screen, eventually overlapping together to form the haunting gateway for viewers to access “The Last Column.”
The project was launched last month by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), partly in response to the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Turkey. It aims to connect readers with the final published work of murdered journalists.
“Their legacy is now in our hands” the project website states.
The names may be familiar, like war correspondent Marie Colvin (killed in Homs, Syria in 2012) or they may not -- the project includes local reporters in countries all around the world.
According to CPJ research, nine out of 10 journalist murders go unpunished, and “nearly 90 percent of all journalist murders are carried out with impunity.”
“The vast majority of murdered journalists are local reporters working in their own countries, covering issues like corruption and human rights violations,” Joel Simon, executive director of the CPJ, told CTVNews.ca in an email.
Simon says that the project begs the question: “What are the stories that were not written as a result of these murders? What is that we don’t know as a result? Truly, it’s incomprehensible.”
“Murder is the ultimate form of censorship,” he says.
For Simon, the “most striking” aspect of the project is the diversity -- well-known names like Colvin and James Foley are included, but also “little-known and sadly forgotten reporters -- like Deyda Hydara,” who was assassinated in 2004 in Gambia.
Readers can access the project online and watch interviews with the family, friends and colleagues of the journalists featured in the project.
“The main message is that we have a stake in achieving justice,” says Simon.
“Whether these reporters worked for major international media outlets, or local websites, they informed the world…we can’t allow those who use violence to determine what we know.”
