Investigative journalists are vulnerable. So far in 2015, 44 journalists have been killed, while in 2014, 61 journalists were killed. As conflict continues in certain parts of the world, journalists face peril in uncovering truths and reporting them to the public.

Amjad Atallah, executive vice president of content for Al Jazeera America, delivered the Daniel W. Kops Freedom of the Press Lecture on “Journalism Under Fire” Oct. 15 in Goldwin Smith Hall. Atallah was one of the senior executives on the launch team for Al Jazeera America, as well as AJ+, Al Jazeera’s newest channel.

Atallah opened with a description of Al Jazeera’s mission, detailing the importance of maintaining integrity in the field of investigative journalism: “We can talk about the stories because they matter to the people in those countries.  We can do a story on the Central African Republic, not only because there’s some intersection with France or Britain or the United States, but because there’s an intersection with the lives of the people in the Central African Republic.”

Atallah has served in senior advocacy and advisory roles in conflict and post-conflict situations, including directing international policy and advocacy efforts on behalf of Darfuris and advising Palestinians in negotiations with the United States and Israel.

However, Atallah was particularly attracted to the field of journalism. “Some of the most amazing people that I met were journalists who were actually changing the world,” he said. “Without the reporting that came out of Bosnia [during the Bosnian war, 1992-95], it is unclear whether that genocide would have come to its logical conclusion.”

Atallah discussed the right of journalists to gripe about their struggles when their subjects are subjected to continual suffering. 

“Is it a little bit self-centered and narcissistic for journalists to say, what about us?” he asked. “I would say no, not because journalists can’t be narcissists, but because there is a correlation between the tax on journalists, and the greater crimes that are taking place around them within the stories their trying to cover.”

The annual talk is named after Daniel Kops ’39, a former editor-in-chief of the Cornell Daily Sun, who established the Daniel W. Kops Freedom of the Press Fellowship Program in 1990. Each year the program brings a distinguished speaker to campus through the American Studies Program.

Scott Goldberg ’16 is a student writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.