Being a journalist is not an easy task. You have to search the world to find news, and after you find them, you have to present them as well as you can while making sure you don’t offend anyone. In some cases, it might be your news that put your life at risk. Even though you present them in a highly-diplomatic way, your life can get threatened. This mainly happens in the oppressive countries, where journalists find it difficult to freely express themselves. Press freedom is a taboo subject in such regimes, which have killed more than one thousand journalists in the last 20 years.
One of the journalists who put their work above all, one of truth’s defenders, and the most recent and probably the most outrageous case is that of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul but did not leave the building alive. Despite the fact that truth preachers are most probably doomed to die, truth itself somehow succeeds to beat the sick system in countries with oppressive regimes. It manages to make itself heard throughout the world.
More nicely put, #TruthNeverDies. A concept about which UNESCO and DDB Paris thought best represents the journalists, who sacrificed themselves in an attempt to cover certain events and truthfully inform the public.
Despite being deceased, their work successfully survives. And that’s what UNESCO wants to celebrate just in time for International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI), which took place on November 2nd. This date was specially chosen to commemorate two French journalists killed in Mali on 2 November 2013.
The international campaign for IDEI is based on a simple idea: journalists are killed so that their work never sees the light of day. But UNESCO wants to help these people make their ideas heard worldwide and not keep them silent, even though they are dead. That’s why the organization prepared a message for the perpetrators: there’s no point in killing journalists because you know what? The truth never dies. Got that?
Directed by the creatives at the Paris-based agency, the campaign kindly asks media and Internet users to get involved in supporting free press. Most importantly, the initiative urges people to share the stories and work of journalists who were targeted in an attempt to silence them. Only then would they preach the truth that was to be kept hidden. Users can take part in this action by using the hashtag #TruthNeverDies.
“It is our responsibility to ensure that crimes against journalists do not go unpunished. We must see to it that journalists can work in safe conditions which allow a free and pluralistic press to flourish,” said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO on the occasion of IDEI.
UNESCO aims to draw worldwide attention through hard-hitting headlines, its social media accounts, and lastly, via a dedicated website. It all comes down to you now: will you get involved and help the silenced journalists say the truth for one last time? We’re doing our part!
Credits:
Client: UNESCO
Agency: DDB Paris