Safety of Journalists

Adam Holloway Excerpts

Thursday 10th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Adam Holloway (Gravesham) (Con) [V]]

As a foreign correspondent, I have reported from wars in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq. I hope you will indulge me, Mr Deputy Speaker, in reading the names of those British-based journalists who have died in the course of their work since I was the ITN correspondent in Sarajevo. The list is not exhaustive, and of course there are several still missing. It reads: Paul Jenks; Ibrahim Goskel; John Schofield; Vincent Francis; Martin O’Hagan; Roddy Scott; my colleague from ITN, Terry Lloyd; James Miller; Richard Wild; Simon Cumbers; Kate Peyton; Paul Douglas; James Brolan; Martin Adler; Rupert Hamer; Tim Hetherington; Marie Colvin, who I was with during the war in Iraq in 2003; Mick Deane; and most recently, as far as we know, Lyra McKee.

That long list of names is evidence of the fact that proper journalism is eye witness journalism—you have to bear witness yourself; there is no substitute for being there on the ground. This kind of journalism cannot be pursued over the internet, at a distance or even using local sources. This is what gives us a true picture of the world that we cannot get from fake news, internet memes, propaganda and sophisticated Government propaganda, often over Twitter.

But there is a terrible cost to this type of journalism, and we owe a debt to those who have lost their lives in pursuit of the truth. All too often today, news is confused with entertainment—what I call “news entertainment”—and many of those who currently call themselves journalists should be ashamed of themselves. We need to reclaim this heritage and support real news by real journalists.