A YouTube channel launched to honor fallen journalists has already received more than 70 video submissions.
Google created the Journalists Memorial Channel on YouTube to honor the memory of journalists who killed while reporting the news. The aim of the project is to create an online partner to the Journalists Memorial at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
Users are being asked to submit videos that profile or represent the work of journalists who have lost their lives and appeared on the memorial. Since the May 16 launch, users around the globe have uploaded videos in languages ranging from Spanish to Greek to Nepali.
Journalists honored so far on the YouTube channel include Reuters cameraman Hiro Muramoto, who was shot during a clash between Thai troops and anti-government protesters and Sokratis Giolias, the first journalist killed in Greece in more than 20 years.
“It’s painful to talk about it, many people would like to forget the past…but it comes back to haunt us. If we ignore the past, it will be a different sort of injustice,” said journalist John Seigenthaler, in a video honoring a deceased French journalist.
Watching the memorial channel is a haunting commentary on press freedom today. As the videos load in daisy-chain fashion from around the world, journalists who gave their lives for their profession all meld into one.
Some 77 journalists were killed in 2010 and will be added to the Newseum memorial this year. More than 2,000 journalists have already been honored, their names etched in glass panels in the building.