Bayeux memorial stone to honour 66 journalists killed in past year
Christophe Deloire, the secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), will be accompanied by close relatives and colleagues of three of the journalists killed during the year – Shireen Abu Akleh, Maks Levin and Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff – when he unveils the 2022 memorial stone at the Reporters Memorial in Bayeux, in northern France, on 6 October.
Organised as part of the Bayeux-Calvados-Normandy Awards for War Correspondents, this annual ceremony pays tribute to journalists who were killed in the past year – unveiling a white stone column on which their names have been engraved.
Tributes to Maks Levin, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff and Shireen Abu Akleh
Maks Levin, a Ukrainian photo-journalist who worked for the Reuters news agency and the Ukrainian news website LB.UA, was executed by Russian soldiers in a forest north of Kyiv on 13 March 2022 while covering the war in Ukraine. His colleague Markiian Lyseiko will deliver a speech in his honour at the ceremony.
Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist working for Al Jazeera, was killed by a single gunshot while reporting in the West Bank on 11 May although she was wearing a “press” vest and helmet. Her niece Lina Abu Akleh will pay tribute to her at the ceremony.
Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, a French video reporter working for the French TV news channel BFMTV, was killed by shrapnel from a shell while in a humanitarian truck in Lysychansk, in Ukraine, on 30 May. Both of his parents will attend the ceremony and his mother, Sylviane, will deliver an address in his honour.
66 journalists killed in connection with their work
The 2021 ceremony honoured 53 journalists who had been killed worldwide in connection with their work – nearly one journalist a week. This year’s memorial stone, covering the 12 months from mid-2021 to mid-2022, will bear 66 names – ten of them those of Mexican journalists alone.
Ranked 127th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2022 World Press Freedom Index, Mexico is experiencing the deadliest period for the media in its history and continues to be the world’s deadliest country for journalists. But the list of media victims is also growing longer in Ukraine, Brazil and Palestine.
The past year has shown how dangerous journalism can be at a time of political instability. Not only have more than 60 journalists been killed in connection with their work, but more than 400 are currently in prison.
Practical information:
Ceremony time: 5 p.m. on Thursday, 6 October
Place: Reporters Memorial
Boulevard Fabian Ware - access from rue de Verdun
Entrance free
Full programme of the Bayeux-Calvados-Normandy Awards for War Correspondents
