Students profile jailed journalists

Elysha Krupp

2005 was the deadliest year for journalists world-wide since 1995: 63 journalists and five media assistants were killed for doing their jobs or expressing their opinions. In addition, 300 physical assaults were recorded and more than 1,000 media outlets were censored, an increase of 60 per cent compared to 2004.

Started in 1989 by Reporters Without Borders (RWB), Jailed Journalists’ Support Day allows media outlets — 200 to date, 40 of them in Canada — to acknowledge and support their colleagues who have been imprisoned just for doing their jobs.

Students in the Journalism Graduate Diploma program contributed to this cause by writing 200-word profiles on imprisoned journalists. These profiles were published in The Gazette, Nov. 23, in honour of the 17th annual Jailed Journalists’ Support Day.

For RWB’s Canadian spokesperson, Emily Jacquard, journalists are vehicles of global knowledge. She said, “Without journalists telling you that people don’t have enough food, nobody would know about it. Press freedom is one of the first rights.”

Tanya Churchmuch, Senior Media Advisor at Concordia and past president of RWB, said the newfound interest of the journalism students is key. “We always hope that it’s the next wave of journalists who will help pick up the situation where it is right now, so there’s a continuous effort being made to publicize these kinds of injustices.”

Lucas Chambers wrote about AnnaKurban Amanklytchev of Turkmenistan, who was imprisoned by his government on the vague accusation of “having ammunition.” Writing Amanklytchev’s profile reminded Chambers of the importance of issues far from Canada. “There are injustices to be dealt with every day.”

Alison Brunette wrote a profile on Fabio Prieto Llorente, who was accused of “damaging the independence and territorial integrity of the Cuban state.”

Brunette said, “If the same thing happened to me, I would want to know that there was a group of people who would support me.” Contributing to Jailed Journalists’ Support Day is “making me think a little bit about the immediate repercussions of what I could do.”