London: Journalists' Commemorative Service

Rev Alison Joyce leads the service

Journalists, editors and all those working in media around the world came together yesterday for the annual Journalists' Commemorative Service at the industry's spiritual home in London.

Opening the service at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, Reverend Canon Dr Alison Joyce welcomed the congregation gathered to remember the journalists, media workers and support staff who had died doing their job or whom were lost to illness over the past year, adding that St Bride's mission had never been more prescient 'than at the present time."

"We minister to journalists of all faiths and none. We hold you in our hearts and in our prayers," she added.

The mood inside the 17th century church, was sombre at a time when journalists globally are under greater threats than ever, a situation reflected in this year's commemorative theme: 'Facts Under Fire' and in the statistics presented by France 24 UK Correspondent Bénédicte Paviot and former CBS News Senior Foreign Correspondent Mark Phillips.

"At least 26 journalists have been killed in the course of their work since January 1st this year," Ms Paviot said in her reflection. "473 are currently detained, 136 currently listed as disappeared and 16 are currently being held hostage".

"More than 200 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli forces. Never have so many been killed in such little time in one region," she added, paying tribute to journalists who had continued reporting from within their own communities in Gaza in the "deadliest ever war for journalists."

Remarking on his previous stint as main speaker at the service, almost a decade previously, Mark Phillips described the increasingly "depressing ritual" of recounting the number of journalists killed annually.

"The Committee to Protect Journalists, for example, reveals that 129, a record number of journalists, were killed last year," he said, adding that in the ten years between his first and current address to the congregation a staggering 837 journalists and media professionals had been killed.

"We used to think - or we used to tell ourselves - that running around with helmets and flack-jackets and driving cars with PRESS and TV written all over them, provided some means of protection, even some kind of immunity. But if that was wishful thinking then, it's become delusional now."

In a wide ranging address which included changes in how wars were conducted as well as what stories are told, Mr Phillips also warned of another fundamental change in hostility towards journalism from within the profession.

"The battle lines in journalism have shifted. They are not just in conflict zones any more. They're in the newsroom, the edit room and in executive offices. Particularly in the United States but here in Britain and elsewhere as well, perceived political and cultural partisanship in the news media has become, in my view, an existential threat. The firewall between editorial and business and political interests has come down.

"In the age of alternative facts, truth is a moving target."

The congregation joined in prayer and music to remember those lives lost, with the Rector Dr Joyce ending on words of thanks to the media platforms who had contributed to this year's commemoration, a reminder to hold on to hope as she renewed St Bride's commitment as the international spiritual home for all working in journalism in the midst of huge challenges.