The world has its great centres of journalism – think London in Fleet Street’s heyday. New York or places like Frankfurt or Singapore when it comes to business news. But a small town in Northern France can arguably claim a longer history and, more importantly, remains a place that believes – and invests – in the importance of journalism.
Bayeux in Normandy was once known for its 70-metre-long tapestry, showing the defeat of England by William the Conqueror. In some ways, its 58 individual scenes make up the very first ‘long form’ pieces of visualised journalism. As the first town to be liberated by the Allied Forces following the D-Day landings, in 1944 it became the headquarters of what today we would call embeds – the reporters covering the liberation of Europe. And for the last 30 years, for a week every autumn it has hosted a festival and prize, honouring and remembering the work of war correspondents.
This year, more than 40,000 visitors came to Bayeux to hear some of the world’s best reporters, watch their work and explore exhibitions on Gaza and Ukraine from today, to the fall of Saigon nearly half a century ago. 195 journalists lost their lives in Vietnam and Cambodia, a reminder of the terrible price journalism paid during the two-decade-long conflict in Indochina to deliver truth, accountability and justice — and still does.
The Prix Bayeux underscored the quality of broadcast media in the UK – the great Andrew Harding won the radio award for his BBC reporting about Sara, a 7-year-old girl who drowned as her family tried to cross the English Channel seeking asylum in the UK. ITV News won the TV prize for Johnny Irvine’s piece in which a contributor they had just finished interviewing in Gaza was shot and killed by the IDF. Sky News also made the final three, while Palestinian journalists won the written and photography prizes.
Sadly, more names than ever were added to Bayeux’s permanent Journalists’ Memorial this year. To read the names of those you knew inscribed into stone for eternity by those they never met but who want to remember, is a privilege all of its own. 80 years after D-Day brought liberation, the people of Normandy have not forgotten the importance of the media in defending and delivering freedom — then and now. Vive le Bayeux, Vive la Normandie.
