New National Mall memorial to honor fallen journalists: 'Beacon of the free press'

Just off the main stretch of the National Mall and in the shadow of the Capitol, planning for one of the area’s next monuments is underway.

"Our hope is that even if they didn't intend to stop by and see the memorial, that as they walk down Independence Avenue, making their way to the Air and Space Museum, that they'll say, oh, that looks interesting, and they'll come across the street and then learn more about why journalism and the free press is so important for all of us," President of the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation Barbara Cochran said.

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The National Mall is the most visited park in the United States, with more than 25 million people visiting each year.

"One of the things we're hoping is that this will become a beacon of the free press for visitors from abroad, as well as the people who come from all across the country," Cochran said.

John Ronan Architects is designing the monument. It will be built on a limestone base with a main structure that is made of glass.

"The idea is to indicate the qualities of journalism by using materials that suggest transparency, clarity, light," Cochran said.

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The pathway around the monument will be designed as an investigative journalist’s path to uncover a story. It will lead to the Remembrance Hall, where text from the First Amendment will be engraved in steel and covered in glass.

"This is tricky because, telling the story of journalists who've lost their lives, it's an unfinished story, as we know," Cochran said. "There will be no list of names, on the memorial walls, but we hope that through using quotes and symbols and other, means that are now available to us in this modern digital age, that will be able to summon up those examples of the kinds of journalists who have perished."

Former Republican California Congressman and Tribune Publishing Company Chairman David Dreier conceived the idea to build a memorial. The foundation was launched on June 28th, 2019, exactly one year after one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in U.S. history, when a gunman attacked the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland.

"A man who was unhappy about a perfectly truthful story about him, a court case involving him, charged into the newsroom, shot his way into the newsroom with a gun, and proceeded to spray around the newsroom and killed five people there."

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Capital Gazette staff members Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters were all killed in the attack. The Fallen Journalists Foundation hopes to unveil the memorial in June of 2028 to mark the 10th anniversary of the shooting.

In December 2020, Congress signed a law that authorized the foundation to build the memorial.

"There has never been a monument to the idea of the free press," Cochran said. "This is a monument to an idea. And to the people who sacrificed their lives for that idea of a free press."

Tragedy struck Fox News two and a half years ago in Ukraine. Veteran Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra "Sasha" Kuvshynova were killed when their vehicle came under fire while reporting on Russia’s invasion. Fox News Correspondent Benjamin Hall was also severely injured in the attack.

"They were there to serve your audience, to tell the American public," Cochran said. "That takes incredible courage. And that's exactly the kind of courage we want to honor, this memorial."