Freedom of the press is not only endangered in war zones or dictatorships.
Today, the 1st Hamburg Press Freedom Week began; with interesting guests talking about interesting topics.
Coincidence it's September 11?
My thoughts go back ... no, not 22 years. 50 years.
September 11, 1973: Chilean coup d'état
Never shall I forget this day and the atrocities that followed.
And I shan't forget José Carrasco.
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| Chile, my tortured country |
In the morning hours of 8 September 1986, shortly after a regrettably unsuccessful assassination attempt on General Pinochet, José Carrasco, editor of the magazine Análisis, was kidnapped from his flat and shot by a death squad at a cemetery wall.
The cemetery wall became a site of resistance. Residents of the adjacent poor quarter painted the wall white and decorated it with flowers.
At first, policemen came every night, painted the wall black, tore out the flowers, even sawed off an iron cross the poor of Caonchali had put up.
There, people who barely had enough money to eat, let alone buy newspapers, demanded freedom of speech and honoured the courage of the journalist and his colleagues.
Take my words as a tribute to all those who had, have and will have the courage to speak out against injustice, arbitrariness and totalitarianism of any kind.
I am not sure I would have been or would be so courageous.
The peace of the night.
That coup was horrible. Today is also the anniversary of the Camp David Peace Accords signing, which is why it was chosen for the attacks. For everyone trying to do good, it seems there are more than ever crawling out of the woodwork trying to drag us backward.
ReplyDeleteNot surprising, Mimi, considering there was more than enough evil when there lived one billion bipeds on this planet; now there are eight billions ...
DeleteThank you for this tribute.
ReplyDeleteAnd huge thanks to the men and women of courage who speak out and tell the truth despite the danger.
As Brecht once wrote:
DeleteBut one will not say:
The times were dark
But: Why were their poets silent?
Same goes for journalists ... and ...
Un bonic homenatge a totes les persones que parlen des de la llibertat. Molts d'ells, malauradament, hi han deixat la vida.
ReplyDeleteAferradetes, Sean.
Which is why I support Reporteros Sin Fronteras.
DeleteThe world needs courageous journalists and people to speak the truth. A powerful post!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bill. And yes, not only journalists ought to be courageous.
DeleteSpeaking the truth is on uncomfartable to a few people. Lets hope those people will run through the communist barrier
ReplyDeleteWell, one does not need to be a communist. Dumb nationalists, fascists and simply idiots are good at it, too. Alone, when I think of a certain Suella Braverman.
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