By Tony Royden-
The Canadian Journalism Foundation is launching an initiative to mark the United Nation’s World Press Freedom Day on Thursday.
Dubbed “World News Day” , it will celebrate the work reporters in newsrooms across Canada do to support freedom and democracy.
The initiative comes in the wake of nine journalists killed in Kabul, Afghanistan. Monday’s attack was the most deadly on reporters since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Those killed include an Agence France-Presse photographer, a cameraman for the local Tolo TV station. and several reporters for the Afghan branch of Radio Free Europe.
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The killings were a dreadful reminder of the real danger to life journalists face in this day and age.
CJF is marking the day by hosting an event entitled “Why real news matters more than ever.” The event is scheduled to be moderated by Ian Hanomansing, co-host of CBC’s The National, and feature journalists including Sara Mojtehedzadeh, Toronto Star’s work and wealth reporter; Vicky Mochama, Also attending are outstanding journalists like columnist for StarMetro; Robyn Doolittle, investigative reporter with The Globe and Mail; Kevin Newman, host and managing editor of CTV’s W5; and Jane Lytvynenko, reporter with BuzzFeed News, among others.
“We’re living in a time of increasing wealth but also increasing inequality,” said Mojtehedzadeh. “So now more than ever, journalism plays a vital role in ‘afflicting the comfortable.’ ”
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“Journalists put in a lot of hard work to sift through fiction and spin, to uncover half-truths and lies. That’s how we hold our leaders to account,” she said. “It’s also how we make space for the less powerful to be heard … journalism is a vital tool in levelling the playing field.”
Citizens will be able to speak about how journalism changed their lives, such as Carol Todd, mother of Amanda Todd, the teenager in Port Coquitlam, B.C., who took her own life after a harrowing experience of being stalked and bullied online and at school.
The event will be held at CBC’s Barbara Frum Atrium at 6 p.m.
Announcing the event, David Walmsley, chair of the CJF and editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail, said in a news release that “we belong to an industry that for too long has acted without confidence or clarity.”
“Never have more people consumed news or been more interested in news on so many platforms, but too few understand how journalism gets done. World News Day is a moment to pause and for our industry and our audience to join in explaining why journalism matters.”
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