About Our Values
A 30,000-word, two-part series on the life and death of Steven Sotloff inaugurates a new look along with a commitment to some traditional principles
June 18, 2015
Last night, Tablet published one of the most important pieces of its six-year history: A two-part series on the life and death of Steven Sotloff, the young freelance journalist killed last year by ISIS. You can find part one here, and part two here.
It’s long, which it should be. Steven was part of a new generation of stringers, armed with cellphones and laptops, who work with no structural net (let alone health or other benefits), and often without much experience in or knowledge of the societies on which they’re reporting. And for freelancers willing to report from the front lines of war and revolution, the Arab Spring has made the Middle East a particularly ripe environment for scoops–and danger. Last year alone, 119 journalists were abducted in conflicts worldwide, and 92 journalists and media workers were reportedly killed.
We are all benefiting from the risk-taking, ambition and dedication of these people. It’s worth asking ourselves what they face in bringing us our news, and whether we as readers feel they are being adequately supported in doing so.
Alana Newhouse is the editor-in-chief of Tablet Magazine.
