Terror in Paris--Je suis Charlie "Yesterdays murders at the magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris were not just an attack on journalism, they were yet another declaration of open warfare on free speech. Journalists who take on extremism and report on the abuses of power are a flash point for violence, and the past year has been an extraordinarily brutal reminder. The list of journalists deaths across the globe grew every day, including the murders of freelance reporter Aung Kyaw Naing, "Par Gyi," in Burma; 21-year-old intern Facely Camara in Wom, Guinea; blogger Marcos de Barros Leopoldo Guerra in Ubatuba, Brazil; reporter Vyacheslav Veremiy, 32, in Kiev, Ukraine and freelance photographer James Foley in Syria...Last night, the citizens in the crowds who were "not afraid in Paris, London, and cities throughout Europe and the United States were not journalists. They knew that their right to speak freely is inherently granted and they know whats at stake when it's threatened. The only way to keep free speech alive is to stand up for it -- and use it. The message they sent, we carry: Theres no backing down. Theres only moving forward, doing our jobs, making your voices heard."
---Online News Association Board of Directors and Staff Go Back |
