GroundTruth

VIENNA – Here in this fussy, formally dressed city of ballrooms and opera houses, you could tell right away who were the journalists in town for the International Press Institute convention. They were the scruffy ones with the slightly wrinkled suits and the well-worn shoes who felt a bit out of place amid all the opulence.

The 60^th IPI World Congress brought together some 500 journalists, editors and publishers from around the globe for a conference titled “Thinking the Unthinkable: Are We Losing the News? Media Freedom in the New Media Landscape.”

Candidly, sometimes conferences like this are less than worthwhile. But this one was different. Here there was a kinetic exchange of ideas from journalists from every corner of the world. They hailed from historic centers of global power like the BBC, to new centers of power such as Google and to the quieter efforts of noble teams like Radio Okapi, the small but very important radio station that is reporting on the issues that matter in the Congo. GlobalPost was proud to be among those invited and to share in the panel discussion on the future of media.

There were inspiring speeches. They were presented by the well-known such as the former Sunday Times editor Sir Harold Evans, who delivered a kind of journalistic call to arms that was as inspiring as the St. Crispin’s Day speech in Henry V. And they were delivered by the less well known, such as Joseph Guyler C. Delva, an investigative reporter from Haiti, who enlightened the conference on the need for a strong media to watch over his country as it struggles to emerge from the devastating earthquake.

It was also a time of solidarity for the journalists who are risking their lives around the world, and a time to recognize the many who’ve been murdered. IPI Director Alison Bethel McKenzie, a former colleague of mine from The Boston Globe, presented a grim report on 52 journalists who’ve been killed on the job so far this year.

“Journalists continue to systematically lose their lives to conflict, militants, paid thugs, governments, drug dealers, corrupt politicians, unscrupulous security officers and others,” she said.

In the end of the day, Vienna may be a bit rich for the journalist crowd. But there was no question that the dramatic elegance of Vienna’s historic City Hall seemed the right setting to honor true heroes of the craft of journalism on Monday, September 13. Up on stage were the likes of May Chidiac, the Lebanese TV journalist who lost her leg and her arm in a car bomb attack in retaliation for her aggressive reporting in Lebanon. There was Akbar Ganji, the Iranian journalist and dissident who has worked tirelessly defending freedom of speech in Iran and spent time in prison for his efforts. And there were the posthumous awards, such as the one accepted on behalf of Lasantha Wickrematunge, the brave editor of the Sri Lankan daily newspaper, The Sunday Leader, who was murdered in 2009. For the full list of World Press Freedom heroes awarded this year and the 60 who’ve been awarded in all, you can visit the IPI website.