Candles for Gaza: Rhodes University in South Africa holds a vigil for Gaza's fallen journalists

At Rhodes University’s Makhanda campus, students and staff marked a month of remembrance for journalists killed in Gaza with a candlelight vigil, CDs hanging from trees bearing the faces of reporters, and A4 photographs laid along campus walkways. 

Over several weeks, students and lecturers at the university’s School of Journalism and Media Studies held a series of events to honour journalists who have died covering the war, a gesture of Palestinian solidarity that also doubled as a lesson in the dangers of reporting under fire.

The commemoration began with a screening of Gaza Journalists Under Fire, a documentary shown to raise funds for Mohammed Alshannat, a Rhodes PhD student currently in Gaza. The following week, journalism students conducted vox pops across campus, asking peers about their awareness of global affairs. In the third week, they hung over 270 CDs in trees across the grounds to commemorate each of the fallen Palestinian journalists, displaying their portraits. The month-long programme concluded on 23 October with a memorial service, where students, staff, and guests from across the journalism fraternity lit candles in silence.

Since the start of Israel's two-year genocide in Gaza, at least 270 journalists and media workers have been killed. 

Head of the School, Dr Jeanne du Toit, reminded those gathered of the essential role journalists play in both peace and conflict. "We are here because each of those lives mattered, and because their loss is a loss for truth, for accountability, and for all of us who rely on fearless reporting. Journalists go to places many of us will never see. They listen when others are silenced; they take risks so that the wider world can know what is happening. When a journalist is killed, we lose not only a person, but a commitment to bearing witness, and the stories they were still to tell.”

For final-year journalism student Charlotte Mokonyane, who organised the campaign and memorial, the project was both academic and deeply personal.

“We created the Visual Impact, where over 270 CDs and photographs turned abstract numbers into tangible reminders of the lives lost,” she told The New Arab. “We came together for the documentary screening to raise funds and turn awareness into tangible support for a fellow Rhodes student. And now, we stand here, surrounded by light.

“Each of these candles represents one of over 270 journalists, dedicated storytellers and truth-seekers whose light was extinguished while they were doing the essential work of holding a lamp up to the world. We light these candles to honour their courage, to acknowledge their sacrifice, and to affirm the enduring importance of a free press.”

Mokonyane said that while her project had concluded, the duty to truth must not.

"The memory of these journalists should inspire trainee journalists. As future communicators and engaged citizens, we will always be a voice for the voiceless," she said.

At the memorial, Rhodes Music Radio station manager Unathi Koboka delivered a eulogy titled Their Voices Echo Through Us, which moved the audience from mourning to resolve.

“Today, we speak not from the comfort of our studio, but from a place of grief and outrage, a place where silence is not an option. Because as we gather here in safety, somewhere across the world in Gaza, journalists are dying. Not by accident. Not by mistake.

“In the line of duty, with cameras as their shields and truth as their only weapon. More than 270 journalists, parents, colleagues, students, and dreamers have been killed since this war began. These are not just numbers. They are voices that believed stories can change the world.”

Koboka called on journalists across South Africa and beyond to turn remembrance into collective action. “As Rhodes Music Radio, as a community radio station, we are steadfast in the struggle for truth and justice. We refuse to look away. Their courage calls to us. From this small corner of Makhanda, we amplify, we educate, we stand in solidarity. Journalism, true journalism, is not neutral in the face of injustice; it is a commitment to humanity.”

She urged practitioners to teach young broadcasters that objectivity does not mean silence, to dedicate airtime to the realities of Gaza, and to platform Palestinian journalists whenever possible. “Remembrance is resistance,” she said. “We can host dialogues on ethics, bias, and bravery in war coverage. We can partner with campus and community radio stations to create a collective campaign called #VoicesForGaza, to honour the fallen and demand protection for media workers worldwide.

“And most importantly, we must continue to speak, even when the world seems deaf. Because journalism is not just a career, it is a calling. Let us make sure their voices, though buried under rubble, continue to echo through us.”