People Column

“There is a new war on journalists,” says Alberto Ibargüen, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. He is correct.

“Today’s terrorists will kill a journalist not to stop a story, but to create one,” Ibargüen told journalists gathered in New York 10 days before kidnappers in Yemen murdered American photojournalist Luke Somers during a failed Dec. 6 rescue attempt by U.S. commandos.

Speaking at the annual International Press Freedom Awards dinner of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Ibargüen said terrorists killing journalists while making use of social media are the most visible part of a new war on journalists but they are not the only concern.

“A new boldness courses through closed governments, up and down the military chain of command,” he said, “and in the minds of criminals and autocrats everywhere.”

U.S. officials said Somers and a second hostage, South African teacher Pierre Korkie, were killed by their captors, militants from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), who realized a rescue effort was underway. It was the second attempt by the U.S. to rescue Somers in less than two weeks. On a video released Dec. 3 showing Somers, an AQAP leader threatened to execute Somers within three days if demands known by the U.S. government were not met.

The execution threat by AQAP followed the murder of five Western hostages since August by the Islamic State, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq. Two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, American aid worker Peter Kassig and British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines were all beheaded.

Somers was kidnapped in September 2013 while walking on a street in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, but the media did not report his abduction or captivity because his family thought publicity would put him in greater danger.

The OPC’s Board of Governors issued a statement Dec. 6 condemning Somers’ murder and extending condolences to his family.

“We pledge to work tirelessly to support and to help equip and protect our members and our colleagues in these times when belligerents are targeting journalists because they are journalists,” the OPC statement said. “In an increasingly connected world, few duties are as crucial as shining light into dark places and bringing that information to a global community. We will do all we can to help those dedicated to doing so and to strengthen them in pursuit of this mission.”

Somers went to Yemen to teach English and became a freelance journalist who covered Yemen’s 2011 uprising and aftermath. He had covered events for Al Jazeera, the BBC and The New York Times, but was remembered by friends for his work trying to capture the everyday concerns of regular people.

A chilling piece by Gregory Johnsen, 2006 winner of the OPC Foundation’s David R. Schweisberg Memorial Scholarship, about his near abduction and harrowing escape in Sanaa was published in November by BuzzFeed, where Johnsen is the first Michael Hastings Fellow. “In our world, evil typically wears a mask.” Johnsen wrote. “It stalks about in disguise, peeking out through the cracks in our humanity. We rarely see it or recognize it when we do, but on that morning in Sanaa it was unmistakable.”

The Nov. 26 dinner where Ibargüen spoke about a new war on journalists raised more than $2.7 million for CPJ’s worldwide press freedom advocacy. The dinner itself brought in a record $1.9 million and Ibargüen, dinner chairman, announced a commitment of $858,000 from the New Initiatives Fund, a new network of funders including the Knight Foundation. A special appeal during the evening raised $235,635.

At the dinner, Diane Foley, the mother James Foley, said: “Jim’s life challenges us to continue his passions for freedom of the press and commitment to those in poverty or ravaged by war.”