An acclaimed British artist is to design the UK’s first permanent memorial to those killed while gathering the news. Wolfgang Buttress will create a permanent artwork at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, with a companion piece at London’s St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street.
More than 100 artists entered a design competition run by the Royal Society of Sculptors to commemorate British and UK‑based journalists and media workers killed while bearing witness to conflict. Buttress’s winning design, End of Copy | Words of Light, was unveiled by the Foreign Office Minister Chris Elmore MP at an event at Bloomberg Space in Central London this evening attended by news industry leaders and the families of journalists killed while reporting.
Buttress’s winning design was praised by the judges for its emotional intelligence, restraint and enduring relevance, and for inviting contemplation without spectacle. The panel included the Executive Director of the Rory Peck Trust, Jon Wiliams, who is a Trustee of the charity building the memorial.
Speaking after the announcement, Wolfgang Buttress said: “Journalism at its best is an act of service, often quiet, frequently risky and, in the most tragic cases, fatal. My ambition was to create a work that acknowledges loss while leaving space for reflection, humility and care.”
Last year was the deadliest ever for journalists. 129 members of the media were killed according to figures compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Since 2000, 16 UK journalists have been killed reporting the news. Introducing Buttress’s winning design, Jon Williams said they deserved to be remembered properly, publicly and permanently: “This memorial will say, what, too often, we fail to say ourselves: That journalism matters, that truth matters. And that those who risk everything to ensure our right to know and protect our freedom—must not—and will not be forgotten.”
The memorial is expected to be installed at the National Memorial Arboretum once fundraising and permissions are complete, while the proposed online record will be created and then continue to grow as families contribute stories, images and testimony.