#http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-barometer-journalists-killed.html?annee=2015

[chemicallystained]

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

As a very good friend of mine once said:

"When you hear, you forget

When you read, you remember

When you draw, you remember."                      - Jessica Grobbelaar

"JE SUIS CHARLIE" ... do you think those were the last words of the staff members who were shot when the attackers came into Charlie Hebdo's Offices - do you think they all stood in a line and in one voice said "Je suis Charlie".... do you think the attackers forced them to say those last words before twelve staff members lives came to an end.

Honestly I can go on and on about the company who produces the satirical magazine many know about. If you google them, shy does not appear in their vocabulary  - JE SUIS CHARLIE - and if the word shy does, it would be only for the world to see and not forget.

I do not know much about CHARLIE HEBDO, honestly, but after my first hand experience in viewing some of their work, it reminded me of an Illustrator who has been grabbing the attention of many South Africans. Since the fall of the Apartheid-era and the rise of the new "Democratic" country; Zapiro has been illustrating the truth and without limitations and only one illustration would be the summary of a standard article. True power of the pen.

Both Zapiro and Charlie Hebdo, who has been recognized for their illustrations, and have been playing the role some people don't want to and one some envy. They have been taking on the opportunities and risking their life for yours, the dignity and the time for the truth to be always free for all of us.

Based on the source, REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS: FOR FREEDOM OF INFORMATION, in the past year 119 Journalists have been kidnapped, 178 Journalists have been imprisoned and 66 Journalist have been killed. Since 2005, our world has lost 720 Journalists. And just for the year 2015, 8 days in, we have lost 8 Journalist. Already with average of one Journalst per day.

Recently today in a post by News24; Zapiro warns of shrinking media freedom article - Zapiro even displayed a sense of fear that the freedom in media will be shrinking due to recent tragic event that happened in Paris Yesterday. As well quoted by News24, Zapiro said: "I think that political leaders, corporate leaders and corporations in general should really start standing up more than they do against the narrowing of freedom of expression.

To have the balls, big cojones or knaters to say no to any political, religious institution or whatever you would like to call it, and say the truth through humour and the mockery in an illustrative medium; it will have more power than the gun our loving military or governments love using and always think is the key to freedom. 

For myself, being a photographer, the appreciation I have for journalism is beyond my own belief and it only started by two single things. The power of the image when I took my first proper photograph and the work of THE BANG BANG CLUB. They were the quartet of photographers who went out of their way to get the photos we always will remember for decades to come, who have shown the world we haven't been living in a perfect world our government has been trying to hide from us.

"When you hear, you forget

When you read, you understand

When you draw, you understand."