A World without journalists would have been a grim mistake, so dreadful; doomed to anarchy, tyranny social decay and hopelessness. All vocations are deemed useful, but the nature of the press matchlessly comes nobler, with its intrinsic mandate of safeguarding human liberty and dignity.
Nonetheless, even with the immense social relevance, the press man toils at great personal risks in service of mankind, often thankless. Arguably one of the most endangered in the universe.
This is the story of Rory Peck; the tragedy of one man who paid the supreme sacrifice while shaping the world. Who was Rory Peck? Rory Peck was a journalist from Northern Ireland, United Kingdom (UK), who met his death in a Russian coup crossfire at 37. He was shot and killed on October 3, 1993, while filming a deadly gun battle involving forces loyal to the then Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, and supporters of radical parliamentarians jostling for power.
Rory Peck was gunned down close to a local broadcast station- Ostankino Television Centre- in Moscow. A tragic eclipse of a phenomenal career in photo journalism, which had taken him to the deadliest of warfare, including the first Gulf war, crises in Bosnia and Afghanistan, as well as savage internecine conflicts in the wake of the dissolution of Soviet Union sparked off by Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika reforms.
The body of Rory Peck was later evacuated with the help of BBC, while his camera and Russian press tag are preserved till date in Frontline Club, a meeting house of freelance journalists located in Paddington District, opposite Saint Mary’s Hospital in central London.
He pioneered the establishment of London-based Frontline Television News Agency in I989, with professional colleagues- Vaughan Smith, Peter Jouvenal and Nicholas Dela Casa. He made monumental contributions, syndicating some of the most memorable news images in history to major media organisations as a freelance correspondent.
To immortalise Rory Peck, his wife, Juliet, aided by close family friends- John Guston, Tira Subart and Lady Lothian, among others, established the Rory Peck Trust in 1995.
From a modest move to support families of freelance journalists, it has morphed into a global organisation dedicated to empower and honour the best in the media industry worldwide.
Juliet, who would later die in 2007, had captioned the journey in poignant unforgettable lines: “To my delight, there is now not only the internationally recognised Rory Peck Awards, but we are also able to give substantial help to families around the world, who may have never heard of Rory, but money raised in his name can help them in their myriad needs. This surely is a memorial worth his name, hastily conceived, but built on a sure foundation.”
Welcome to the 30th Rory Peck Trust! A giant silver screen smiled broadly at me as I sauntered into the comfy exterior of London’s architectural wonder, BFI Southbank. Blossoming on the bosom of River Thames and Waterloo Bridge, BFI Southbank stands in ethereal elegance across Belvedere Road, with its glass themed high rise replica, almost kissing the medieval towers of nearby Kings College.
Sitting inside the expansive NFTI Complex, reputed as the “crown jewel” of British entertainment landscape, among a convivial gathering of trail blazing journalists from cross the world, the mood was upbeat on that fateful Thursday, November 28, 2024.
“A Night to Remember,” a 1982 hit by American R&B group- Shalamar- seemed to be wafting out from my subconscious as the energy of a much-anticipated rendezvous enveloped my being.
The Curtain Raiser. Show hosts, Clive Myrie, BBC’s talented presenter and savvy, Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News, opened the event with superlative backgrounding. Jon Williams, the Executive Director, Rory Peck Trust, then emerged on the podium. He runs the organisation together with a team of Patrons & Trustees/ambassadors, including the eldest son of Rory Peck, James, who represents the family.
Williams, three-time Emmy Award winning veteran journalist, has supervised global news operations of BBC and US broadcaster, ABC. As BBC News Editor, he led over 200 journalists reporting in 30 different countries of the world.
Williams took charge of war reporting in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the Arab spring, a series of insurgencies beginning from Tunisia in late 2010 and spreading to Libya, Egypt, Syria Yemen and Bahrain.
A tall slim figure with urbane humble gait, his simplicity belies his prodigious career. A versatile media leader, he once served as the managing director of RTE, where he perfected digital transformation of Ireland’s most outstanding public broadcaster.
Standing at the 2024 Rory Peck Awards, Williams rendered a brilliant, yet emotive speech, titled ‘Everything, Everywhere, All At Once,’ highlighting the universal dangers confronting journalists in the line of duty.
He told the audience that since the Rory Peck Trust evolved 30 years ago, “there has never been a year like this,” as journalists suffered unimaginable deaths and brutality, adding: “More countries are involved in more conflicts today than any time since the end of the Second World War.
“A record number of journalists and media workers have been killed in the past 12 months, at least 137 in Gaza alone,” included 129 Palestinians, six Lebanese and two Israelis, mostly freelancers, quoting the Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Williams also revealed that “320 journalists are in jail, the second highest total ever,” noting sombrely that President-elect of the United States (US), Donald Trump, has threatened that “he wouldn’t mind if journalists got shot,“ with warnings on revocation of licenses of unfriendly television networks.
“It can be hard to find light amid what can sometimes feel like a diet of despair,” he noted.
But the Rory Peck executive director concluded with buoyant enthusiasm: “We all need hope to believe that tomorrow will be a brighter day and tonight is about doing just that, finding hope. It comes from the courage of those we honour this evening, inspiring individuals who faced down those who wanted their voice silenced, ensuring accountability and enabling justice.
There is a lesson in all that; a call to action for journalism and for journalists to fight those who try to delegitimise us to fight for public trust.” Winners and Finalists. The awards were in four categories- News Award, Sony Impact Award for Current Affairs, News Feature Award and Martin Adler Award. Each category had a team of judging panel, comprising the tested in modern journalism.
The News Awards focuses on immediacy of video story. Sponsored by Google, the winners were Belal al Sabbagh and Yousef Hassouna for their story, Israel-Hamas War in Gaza. The finalists were Sera Creta, with the entry, Journey to Darfur, and Luckenson Jean’s Caught in the crossfire, as gang violence chokes Haiti’s capital. Youseff Hammash got honourable mention for the story, Inside the Gaza siege.
The News Feature title, which centres on in-depth reporting, was awarded to Ibrahim AI Otla for his Witness- Rescue Mission Gaza. Katie Arnold’s Inside Myanmar’s Rebel Advance and West Bank Settler Expansion: a Year on the Frontline and Raul Gallego Abellan’s Ukraine’s Frontline Sacrifice- Point of No Return, emerged as finalists.
Sony Impact Award for Current Affairs, sponsored by electronics giant, Sony, went to Jaber Jehad and Vanessa Bowles for their story, Kill Zone- Inside Gaza. The outstanding nominees were Josh Baker, Sera Obeidat and Isobel Yeung, with the entry, The Other war; Melanie Quigley, Vladimir Sevrionovsky, Oksana Sebinova, Anastasia Tenisheva and Evan Williams for Hunting Russia’s Boys : Dispatches, as well Paul Myles and Chris Walter’s Mayor on the Frontline: Democracy in Crisis.
Concluding was Martin Adler Prize, supported by the Embassy of Sweden in London. Instituted in memory of Martin Adler, a Swedish journalist killed in Mogadishu, Somalia in 2006, while covering a peace rally, the award honours “a local freelance journalist whose work with international media outlets has made a significant contribution to news gathering.”
Aseel Mousa, based in Palestine/UK won the Adler award. The finalists were Zecharias Zelalem, Ethiopian/Canadian journalist who was honoured for his excellent work in drawing international attention to the atrocious humanitarian crisis and human suffering in conflict-prone Amhara region of Ethiopia, and Turkey-based Beril Eski, a freelance journalist/lawyer, who has devoted immense efforts documenting stories on government accountability, gender and immigration issues.
Rory Peck: Lifeline for Freelance Journalists. Gracing the annual Rory Peck awards is a rolling lifeline for freelance journalists working in difficult situations. This assistance include a Therapy Fund for distressed journalists and their families in dire need of material and psychological support, Training Fund and Grants, all dedicated to ensure their safety, professionalism and resilience in the field.
According to a published record of its global impact, over 3000 journalists worldwide have received financial assistance worth 2.9 million Pounds Sterling (about N5.8billion), with 1,145 sessions covered by its Therapy Fund and about 1,000 journalists trained. The beneficiaries were drawn from Mena- 50 per cent; Eurasia- 22 per cent; Africa- 12 per cent; Asia eight per cent and The Americas- eight per cent.
Rory Peck Trust is wholly independent and non-aligned to any political establishment or ideology. Donations for its charities are from corporations, Trusts, Foundations and individuals.
Industry partners include AFP, AP, Aljazeera, BBC News, CNN, CBS, Channel 4, Reuters, NBC News, Sky News, ITN, ITV, Telegraph Media, Dataminr, EBU, Google and 2DF, among others.Rory Peck and Nigeria’s Dele Giwa. There is an instructive correlation between Rory Peck and Dele Giwa, Nigeria’s most famous investigative journalist of all time.
Killed by letter bomb on October 19, 1986, in Lagos, Giwa’s killers remain unknown and his mysterious murder unresolved till date. Like Peck, Giwa, then editor-in chief of the influential Newswatch magazine, was a brave hearted, crusading journalist. While he confronted social evil with his fearless pen, Peck exposed the senselessness of human conflicts with his sharp camera.
But unlike the Northern Irish press hero, Nigeria’s most iconic martyr of journalism had never been fully recognised, except for occasional referencing, especially on his death anniversary. No significant monument to his name, no Trust, no honour. His remains were buried in the rustic village of Ugbekpe-Ekperi in Edo State, South-South Nigeria.
As a young reporter back then in Bendel Broadcasting Service, Benin City, it took a grueling three-hour journey for this writer and some colleagues that witnessed the internment to access the remote final resting place of Nigeria’s most audacious and colourful journalist in modern history.
“We left Dele Giwa in the bush,” one of his grieving colleagues wrote about the 39-year-old journalist in a newspaper article shortly after the burial. In London, even though most journalists, including participants at the 30th Rory Peck Awards, were oblivious of where he was entombed far off in Glendermott Parish Church of Ireland Cemetery, but he lives vivid globally, as the yearly award in his memory stands as one of the most celebrated media events, particularly among perceptive journalists.
That is the power of honour, the beauty of immortality, the undying glory of martyrdom, the brotherhood of the Press, the illuminating pedigree of Rory Peck, a universal lesson in journalism.
CHIAZOR is veteran journalist and former chairman Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Delta State Council
