Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

Initally he spent time freelancing at
The Star under <strong>the</strong> mentorship of <strong>the</strong>
paper’s legendary chief photographer,
<strong>the</strong> late Ken Oosterbroek. He was
<strong>the</strong>n appointed Chief Photographer
of <strong>the</strong> publication’s sister paper <strong>the</strong>
Saturday Star, a position he held for
10 <strong>years</strong> before leaving for Britain
five <strong>years</strong> ago with his wife Penny
and <strong>the</strong>ir family to pursue freelance
opportunities <strong>the</strong>re.
When he left, he’d already made his
mark on <strong>the</strong> local scene amassing
awards like <strong>the</strong> 1997 World Press
Photo Joop Swart Masterclass;
<strong>the</strong> Abdul Shariff Humanitarian
photographer of <strong>the</strong> year award
twice — in 1997 and 1999; <strong>the</strong>
Mondi Shanduka Photographer of
<strong>the</strong> year in 2005 and <strong>the</strong> Fuji Africa
News Image of <strong>the</strong> year in 2006.
His death in <strong>the</strong> Libyan desert
touched <strong>the</strong> local journalism
community, cutting across corporate
rivalries and <strong>the</strong> divide between
broadcast and print in a way never
seen since Oosterbroek was shot and
killed by <strong>the</strong> National Peacekeeping
Force weeks before South Africa’s
landmark 1994 elections.
The reason this time was that this
too was a revolution everyone
believed would happen - and indeed
believed needed to happen - yet
unlike 1994, <strong>the</strong> eyes of <strong>the</strong> world
were on Libya, but <strong>the</strong> main news
organisations were not prepared to
send anyone <strong>the</strong>re.
It was too dangerous, <strong>the</strong> situation
was too fluid with vast swa<strong>the</strong>s of
territory changing hands between
rebels and government forces in <strong>the</strong>
space of a day.
Nobody asked Anton to go <strong>the</strong>re. No
one paid him to go <strong>the</strong>re. He felt a
compulsion as a journalist to record
and document a story that <strong>the</strong>
bigger fish in <strong>the</strong> journalism world
couldn’t find <strong>the</strong> resolve to do.
He did so knowing full well <strong>the</strong>
risks. He left a young family behind
in London, his second son Hiro not
even four-months-old, to cover <strong>the</strong>
story.
62 | Media in Africa - 2011
Anton was a committed journalist to
<strong>the</strong> very end. He was fearless, though
never foolhardy, and he never lost
<strong>the</strong> quintessential integrity of his
craft as a photojournalist. He paid
for it all with his life.
Anton Hammerl was <strong>the</strong> ninth
African photojournalist to be
killed in <strong>the</strong> line of duty since <strong>the</strong>
<strong>Windhoek</strong> <strong>Declaration</strong> of 1991.
Data from <strong>the</strong> Committee to Protect
Journalists lists <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rs as:
• Abdulkhafar Abdulkadir –
freelance (Somalian, killed in
Somalia), December 3, 2009
• Samson Boyi – The Scope
(Nigerian, killed in Nigeria),
November 5, 1999
• Djilali Arabidou – Algérie-
Actualité (Algerian, killed in
Algeria) March 12, 1996
• Ken Oosterbroek – The Star
(South African, killed in South
Africa) April 18, 1994
• Madjid Yacef – L’Hebdo Libéré
(Algerian, killed in Algeria)
March 20, 1994
• Abdul Shariff – freelance (South
African, killed in South Africa)
January 9, 1994
• Djamel Bouhidel – Nouveau
Tell (Algerian, killed in Algeria)
October 5, 1993
• Hosea Maina – Reuters (Kenyan,
killed in Somalia), July 12, 1993
Four more photojournalists, from
outside Africa, have also been killed
on <strong>the</strong> continent over <strong>the</strong> past 20
<strong>years</strong>:
• Lucas Mebrouk Dolega –
European Pressphoto Agency
(French, killed in Tunisia),
January 17, 2011
• Martin Adler – freelance
(Swedish, killed in Somalia),
June 23, 2006
• Hansi Krauss – Associated Press
(German, killed in Somalia), July
12, 1993
• Dan Eldon – Reuters (USA, killed
in Somalia), July 12, 1993.
Hammerl’s portraits: Archbishop
Tutu, <strong>the</strong> Dalai Lama, Angelique Kidjo