The Ultimate Sacrifice for Truth

Forty journalists, men and women, were killed last year while--and often specifically for--pursuing the truth. Risk comes with the assignment. In the last decade of the 20th century, 61 journalists were killed covering the Balkan wars alone. The number in the Vietnam War was 31.

The toll, particularly the targeting of specific journalists and media, is a direct assault on press freedom and aimed at suppressing the free flow of information.

The killings increasingly are deliberate; the observer becomes the target. Colombian Jaime Garzon, a satirist in a dangerous country, was slain to silence his voice. In Sierra Leone last year, 10 journalists were hunted down after being targeted as “enemies” of the so-called Revolutionary United Front.

Taking risks is part of the job, and Americans have not been spared over the years.

For all these reasons, we support the initiative to rededicate the Freedom Forum Journalist Memorial that honors reporters and photographers killed pursuing the news. In a ceremony today in Arlington, Va., new names will be added to the monument, bringing the total to 1,369 journalists from around the world killed covering the news between 1812 and 1999.

This honor comes at a time of flagging public support for a free press. Polls show some Americans are turned off by excesses of some media. Abroad, the press has little support in the face of authoritarian governments and restrictive laws.

But the journalists honored today in Virginia took the risks that ultimately delivered the news that people need to make informed decisions about their lives. We stand in their shadows.