Editorial: Support a memorial to fallen journalists

It's been about a year and a half since five employees of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, were gunned down by the apparent unhappy subject of one of the newspaper's stories.

A few months later, Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was assassinated inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey and his body dismembered.

These were horrific crimes that shocked the nation. But sadly, they provide only a glimpse at the list of journalism's fallen.

Last week, the U.S. House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands heard testimony on H.R. 3465. a proposal that would authorize the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation to build a memorial on federal land without the use of taxpayer funds.

"Washington has many monuments to those who have sacrificed their lives to protect our freedoms," foundation President Barbara Cochran testified. "Yet there is no memorial on public land to the journalists who have made the same sacrifice to protect those same freedoms."

As yet, no suburban congressmen have signed on to co-sponsor this measure. We not only hope they do, but that they work diligently for its passage.

The peril of reporting is largely an underreported story. More than 40 journalists have been killed on American soil over the years because of their profession. And countless others have been killed overseas.

David Chavern, president and CEO of the News Media Alliance, accurately points out that covering the news - even the mundane - "can often be dangerous."

Some of the lost have gained widespread public attention:

David Gilkey, an American photojournalist for NPR killed in a grenade attack in Afghanistan in 2016; James Foley, a freelance reporter kidnapped and killed in Syria in 2014; Marie Colvin, an American working for the Sunday Times of London, killed covering the Syrian civil war in 2012; Daniel Pearl of The Wall Street Journal, kidnapped and killed in Pakistan in 2002.

But many have not. Many who died worked far from glamour just doing everyday reporting.

"Every year," Chavern wrote recently, "dozens of journalists around the world don't return home, giving the ultimate sacrifice - their lives - while working to report the news and promoting the free flow of information necessary for a strong and informed democracy."

In our system of government, facts matter and a free press plays a fundamental role in ensuring our freedom.

A Fallen Journalists Memorial would not only be a fitting tribute to the sacrifice many have given, but also a reminder of the importance of those sacrifices.