Salam, dear reader,
It is a strange feeling to know that you are observing history in real-time, that the events unfolding before you will one day be taught to your grandchildren in their high school classrooms. It was a feeling I experienced most vividly late Tuesday night, tuning in to WKCR 89.9, the student radio of Columbia University, on my computer. The students were reporting live from the pro-Palestinian student encampment and the areas surrounding Hamilton Hall, the building occupied by students. They had renamed it Hind’s Hall, in honor of Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old Gazan child who begged on the phone for help after Israeli tank fire murdered her family members, before she, too, was killed.
I listened as the student reporters documented how armed NYPD officers in riot gear entered the building and arrested the protesters inside. How the police ravaged the peaceful encampment, grabbing one reporter’s backpack in the process. Despite the terrifying scenes unfolding before them, the WKCR team held their ground, committed to their duties as journalists. In between updates, they reminded the audience that the protesters at Columbia were not part of a faceless mob—they were roommates, classmates, people you passed on your way to lunch. The team’s detailed and humanizing coverage shocked me—these were students, only a few years older than myself, reporting on one of the most monumental nights of our lives.
As we observe World Press Freedom Day, we must honor the student news outlets at universities across the country that are courageously working to spread the truth, from Columbia to UCLA. We must also remember the martyred journalists in Gaza that the students at these schools are protesting in the memory of; since the start of the genocide, Israel has killed over 100 reporters. Those who are left, including Bisan and Wael Al-Dahdouh, are in imminent danger.
The freedom of the press is essential to democracy and our collective safety. We need journalists more than ever to show the realities of our world, to share the stories of the vulnerable and the marginalized. Here, on the Houston Crescent, we are working to shape the next generation of reporters and writers to carry out this essential work.
Journalists of all ages need our support. And while we, as everyday citizens, cannot protect them from harassment and targeting, we can uplift and amplify their voices.
Sincerely,
The Editorial Board of the Houston Crescent