WASHINGTON — A new memorial honoring journalists who died while reporting the news is set to be built on the National Mall. The process to begin designing the memorial is now underway.
The Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation received site approval for the new memorial on Thursday from the Commission of Fine Arts. The approved site is located at Independence Avenue, Maryland Avenue and 3rd Street, SW between the National Museum of the American Indian and Voice of America. The memorial will be funded entirely by private donations, with the goal of completing the project by the end of 2028.
A public comment period with the National Park Service extends through May 5.
“I am proud that we have achieved this important milestone in near record time,” said Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation Founder and Chairman David Dreier in a press release. “We could not have done it without the support and partnership of our bipartisan champions in Congress, my former colleagues Ben Cardin, Grace Napolitano, Tom Cole, Rob Portman and Chris Van Hollen.”
Collaborating with Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger, the foundation has begun identifying potential architects, designers and artists who can create a commemorative landscape that represents the full breadth of journalism – past, present, and future. The memorial will serve as a place for reflection and appreciation for those who lost their lives, a convening space for commemoration, and a focal point for learning about the First Amendment and the role of journalism in a functioning democracy.
In addition to a physical memorial, the foundation will provide programming and digital resources to educate the public on the history of the First Amendment, the importance of a free press and the courage of individual journalists who have sacrificed their lives.
“I am excited to begin the process of finding a design team that can convey the urgent importance of the principle of freedom of the press that the First Amendment represents, and that will at the same time honor those who have given their lives for this principle in the course of their work as journalists,” said Goldberger, who is overseeing the design selection process.
The Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation was launched on June 28, 2019. That was the first anniversary of the deadliest assault on journalism in U.S. history when members of the Capital Gazette team were murdered in their newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland.
The Fallen Journalists Memorial Act was signed into law in December 2020.
For more information on the foundation, click here.