July 18, 2009
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962-81). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited in viewer opinion polls as “the most trusted man in America” because of his professional experience and kindly demeanor. Cronkite died on July 17, 2009, at the age of 92 from cerebrovascular disease, described by his son as complications from dementia.
Walter Cronkite was an instrumental leader in the international press freedom movement. “From putting his own life on the line to cover the battlefields of World War II to challenging the ‘thugs’ who physically harassed his reporters on the floor of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Walter Cronkite knew firsthand the challenges journalists face bringing news to the public, and he never forgot them,” said Paul Steiger, CPJ chairman.[1]
Mavi Boncuk |
In 1995, Walter Cronkite helped persuade Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller to drop charges against Reuters correspondent Aliza Marcus, [2] who faced prison for reporting on counterinsurgency strikes against Kurdish rebels.
In a 2006 interview for the magazine, Dangerous Assignments, Cronkite recalled CPJ’s efforts on behalf of Turkish journalists: “The committee’s long-running efforts to persuade several consecutive governments in Turkey to adopt basic democratic principles of free speech and free press. resulted in wide recognition of our devotion to these freedoms. It’s an enduring effort and I’m proud to say that (former chairwoman and current board member) Kati Marton and I were early representatives of the committee, dispatched to try to relieve the Turkish leadership’s incredibly repressive treatment of the press.”
[1] The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1981 to promote press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.
[2] Aliza Marcus, one of the first Western reporters to meet with PKK rebels, wrote about their war for many years for a variety of prominent publications before being put on trial in Turkey for her reporting. Based on her interviews with PKK rebels and their supporters and opponents throughout the world-including the Palestinians who trained them, the intelligence services that tracked them, and the dissidents who tried to break them up-Marcus provided an in-depth account of this influential radical group in Blood and Belief The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence. ISBN: 9780814795873 | 368 pages | Release Date: 4/01/2009
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