The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has paid tribute to journalists and crew killed upholding freedom of speech at the unveiling of a memorial at BBC Broadcasting House in central London.

At Monday night's event, the Secretary-General dedicated a light sculpture, called 'Breathing', on top of the new wing of the BBC Broadcasting House building in Portland Place, which projects a beam of light up to one kilometre into the night sky, to the memory of journalists and news staff killed in the line of work.

The Secretary-General was the guest of honour at the event, which was co-hosted by the International News Safety Institute (INSI) and the BBC, to officially inaugurate the memorial, which was designed by international artist Jaume Plensa.


The inauguration followed the recent deaths of two BBC journalists - Abdul Samad Rohani and Nasteh Dahir Faraah - in Afghanistan and Somalia.

More than 200 reporters have lost their lives since the start of 2007.

A light beam will illuminate the sculpture, which is a glass and steel construction, every night for 30 minutes, in tandem with the BBC's ten o'clock news bulletin.

The words, which are inscribed around the sculpture in a spiral of continuous text, evoke the antithetical themes of speech and silence, life and death.

The sculpture is dedicated to news journalists killed on location.

The glass and steel construction of the sculpture has evolved through close collaboration between the artist, the architects and the engineers Whitby Bird & Partners.

In addition, the BBC also commissioned a poem by ex-war correspondent and poet James Fenton, entitled 'Memorial'.

This poem complements the sculpture, remembering the bravery and self-sacrifice made by news journalists and their crews from news organisations across the world.

(KMcA/JM)