New Delhi: The Editors Guild of India Saturday condoled the death of Danish Siddiqui, the Pulitzer winning photojournalist who was killed while covering the clashes between Afghan forces and the Taliban on 16 July.
Calling his death an “irreplaceable loss to journalism”, the guild said his work was a “living testament to the axiom of photojournalism, ‘if your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough'”.
Noting that his death is “stern reminder” of the risks journalists take to report from the frontlines of conflict, the guild said it deeply disturbed by the vicious racist campaign being run against Siddiqui on social media.
“His death is an occasion to remember him and all the journalists who have died in conflict reporting,” the guild pointed out.
The statement was signed by guild president, Seema Mustafa, general secretary Sanjay Kapoor, and treasurer Anant Nath.
Read the full statement here:
Editors Guild of India condoles the death of Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, Danish Siddiqui, on July 16, in Afghanistan, while he was covering a clash between Afghan security forces and the Taliban near a border crossing with Pakistan. Siddiqui’s death is an irreplaceable loss to journalism.
Over the past decade, he had covered some of most heart wrenching stories of conflict and humanitarian crisis from South Asia and the surrounding regions- the Rohingya refugee crisis, the Nepal earthquake, war in Iraq, Easter blasts in Sri Lanka, protests in Hong Kong, the riots in North East Delhi in 2020, and most recently, the coverage of the devastating human tragedy caused by the pandemic. He was part of the Reuters team that won the Pulitzer prize in 2018 for documenting the Rohingya crisis.
For the past week, Siddiqui had been embedded as a journalist with the Afghan special forces in the southern province of Kandahar and he had been reporting on the on-going conflict between Afghan forces and the Taliban.
His work was therefore a living testament to the axiom of photojournalism, “if your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough”.
Danish Siddiqui’s death is a stern reminder of the great risks journalists takes to report from the frontlines of conflict.
At the same time, the Guild is deeply disturbed by the vicious and highly regrettable racist campaign being run against him by some sections of social media. His death is an occasion to remember him and all the journalists who have died in conflict reporting.
Also read: Shringla condemns killing of Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui in Kandahar violence