President Donald Trump on Wednesday, December 23 signed into law the “Fallen Journalists Memorial Act,” permitting the building of a memorial on federal land in DC to honor journalists who were killed in the line of duty.
The bill authorizes the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation to establish the memorial.
The commemorative work that will be established by the foundation will “commemorate America’s commitment to a free press by honoring journalists who sacrificed their lives to that cause,” according to a statement from the White House.
The Act was passed by the House of Representatives on September 21, 2020, which was followed by the Senate’s unanimous vote on December 3.
The Capital Gazette, which reported the passage of the bill first, lost five of its reporters in a violent attack on June 28, 2018. Gerald Fischman, John McNamara, Wendi Winters, Rebecca Smith, and Rob Hiaasen were shot and killed by a man while in the newspaper’s Annapolis newsroom. The incident has been dubbed the deadliest attack on journalists in US history.
Jarrod Ramos, a Maryland man, pleaded guilty to committing the massacre in October 2019. Ramos reportedly had lost a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper which reported on his guilty plea to harassing a former high school classmate.
“Every year, journalists are attacked, imprisoned and murdered around the world,” said former US Representative David Dreier about the bill. “No matter the circumstances of their deaths, these journalists and their sacrifices deserve to be remembered by a free society that values a free press.”
Dreier is the chairman of the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation and former chairman of Tribune Publishing, the Capital Gazette’s parent company.
The bill was introduced by Democratic Congresswoman Grace Napolitano of California and Republican Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma in the House in 2019. Senators Chris Van Hollen, Ben Cardin of Maryland, and Rob Portman from Ohio co-sponsored it.
“A free press has fought for transparency and freedom since the founding of our republic. Those who personify the First Amendment rights granted to every citizen have made our nation stronger,” Senator Cardin said. “Too many, including five innocent souls lost in the shooting at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, gave everything they had in defense of democracy.”
Among other organizations supporting the Act in addition to the Fallen Journalist Memorial Foundation are:
News Media Alliance,
National Newspaper Association
National Association of Broadcasters
Military Reporters and Editors Association
National Federation of Press Women
Committee to Protect Journalists
Freedom Forum
News Leaders Association
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Radio Television Digital News Association
Society of Professional Journalists