Tributes have been paid to journalists killed in 2022 and 2023 - including Bristol's Dom Philips - ahead of the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day. A total of 68 journalists were killed in 2022, the highest death toll since 2018.
Dom worked for many years as a journalist in Bristol where he set up an events magazine, before moving to Brazil. NUJ members heard a speech from Dom's niece Dominique Davis. He was murdered alongside indigenous expert Bruno Pereira in Brazil in June last year.
Dominique spoke about her uncle and his colleague Bruno at an NUJ conference. She said: “Their story is not just one of two men killed in the forest.
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“It is one of the rights of the rainforest, and the protection and preservation of indigenous peoples and culture.” There are plans to publish the book How to Save the Amazon that Dom and Bruno were working on.
Paul Breeden, who lives in Bristol and represents NUJ members across the south west, held up a card with Dom's name on to mark International Workers' Memorial Day. He said: “In Bristol we remember Dom fondly. He was a Bristolian who helped set up a magazine in the 90s and went on to greater things.
“He became a campaigner for indigenous people and the need to protect the rainforest. He was killed alongside his colleague for simply doing his job.
“Journalists are not always the most popular people when it comes to opinion polls but they are one of the cornerstones of democracy. Eighty per cent of the world’s population lives in a place where media freedom is under threat or being eroded.
“Press freedom is very precious, some people pay for it with their lives but all of us have a duty to stand up and hold power to account. Without journalists at Bristol Live but also at the BBC, ITV and The Bristol Cable, Bristol wouldn’t be much of a democracy, people really need journalists and this is a day to honour this.”
Mr Breeden added that in Britain we do not face the same restrictions that journalists face in places like Russia, India and Turkey where journalists are facing severe reporting restrictions or being imprisoned but that there are still challenges facing journalists.
Nationally, the NUJ is involved in several campaigns including legislation to prevent journalists from being arrested following incidents at the recent Just Stop Oil protests and calling for charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to be dropped.
World Press Freedom Day is held every year on May 3. This year's theme was defined by UNESCO is 'Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights'.
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