Foreign office minister Chris Elmore said free societies rely on courageous journalism as he unveiled the winning design for the UK’s first national memorial for journalists killed doing their jobs.
End of Copy | Words of Light was the winning design chosen by the On The Record Campaign, which is supported by Press Gazette, created by artist Wolfgang Buttress.
A scale model was unveiled at a London reception hosted by Bloomberg on Wednesday as a £1m fundraising campaign was launched to build a full-size version at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, with a companion sculpture housed at St Bride’s Church on Fleet Street.
The Labour MP said: “Peace feels more elusive than it has for a very long time, and that is exactly why independent, courageous journalism has never mattered more at times like this.
“The UK, Europe, alongside civil society, support the safety of journalists and promote free independent media.
“It’s why the UK has recently stepped up again to co-chair the Media Freedom Coalition, a partnership of countries united by a simple belief that journalists should be able to do their job without fear of violence, intimidation or death.
“This memorial will stand as a place for reflection and recognition, a visible reminder of what it costs to bring truth into the light and of the debt we owe to those who never came home… It is an enduring reminder that free societies depend on brave people, and that those people must never be forgotten.”
Executive director of the Rory Peck Trust Jon Williams said: “Much of journalism depends on someone being there, someone bearing witness, often at great personal risk. So the rest of us enjoy the right to know about something, someone, somewhere. No reporter, no story. No story, no shared truth. And without truth, there’s no freedom.
“Right now, telling the truth can get you killed. Last year was the deadliest on record for journalism. At least 129 journalists and media workers were killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a new record high just one year after the last.”
He added that the campaign to build the memorial is “a collective effort across the whole of journalism in all of its forms, broadcast, print, digital, editorial, commercial and tech, all united in a common cause”.
At least 16 UK journalists have been killed doing their jobs since the year 2000.
The memorial sculpture draws on two traditional sign-offs to the end of a submitted piece of news content: “###” and “-30-”.
The symbols are pressed onto aluminium columns that make up the main shape of the memorial.
The On the Record campaign to create the memorial was launched in 2024 by Andrew Baud of communications agency TALA, supported by Press Gazette.
The memorial, which has so far secured £300,000 of its £1m funding target, will be supported by an online archive commemorating journalists killed in conflict and their work, produced in conjunction with Press Gazette.
Buttress, whose winning work was selected by a national design competition through the Royal Society of Sculptors, said: “This memorial is about presence rather than proclamation. Journalism at its best is an act of service, often quiet, frequently risky and, in the most tragic cases, fatal.
“My ambition was to create a work that acknowledges loss while leaving space for reflection, humility and care. It is a memorial shaped as much by what is felt as what is seen.”
The description of the artwork says: “Conceived as rays of light, the columns are arranged in a Fibonacci spiral, creating an immersive space that functions both as a beacon and a place of quiet reflection.
“Polished stainless steel and cast glass surfaces will mirror the surrounding landscape, while the aluminium is designed to weather naturally over time, reinforcing the memorial’s connection to the passage of time.”
The memorial is intended to act as a place of solace to the families that have lost loved ones and somewhere that offers recognition to the journalists.
Karola Zakrzewska, whose brother Pierre was killed by a Russian shell while reporting for Fox News in Ukraine in 2022, said: “When a journalist is killed, the story often moves on quickly, but grief doesn’t. On The Record matters because it says publicly and unequivocally that these lives, and this work, will not be forgotten.
“Knowing that my brother will be remembered alongside others who believed in telling the truth means more than I can easily put into words.”
The winner was decided by a panel of judges including Baud, outgoing Tate director Maria Balshaw and public sculpture expert Mark Richards FRSS.
Chair of On the Record trustees Sarah Sands, former editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and the Evening Standard, said: “This memorial to journalists covering conflicts, together with the online archive, will ensure that their names and work will not be lost to the news cycle.
“It is a lasting statement that the truth matters, and we will remember the courage and sacrifice of those who died for it.”
The memorial will be installed, likely in 2027, once its fundraising target has been reached and the necessary permissions have been granted.
The post Winning design unveiled for first UK journalists’ memorial appeared first on Press Gazette.
