The winning design for the first UK memorial to journalists killed while reporting on conflict has been revealed.
Artist Wolfgang Buttress created End of Copy | Words of Light, drawing on two traditional sign-offs to the end of a submitted piece of news content: “###” and “-30-”.
The symbols are pressed onto aluminium columns that make up the main shape of the memorial.
The permanent artwork is being created for the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, with a companion piece at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street.
The On the Record campaign to create the memorial was launched in 2024 by Andrew Baud of communications agency TALA, supported by Press Gazette.
The memorial, which has secured £300,000 of a £1m funding target, will be supported by a complementary sculpture at journalists’ church St Bride’s on London’s Fleet Street and an online record of journalists killed in conflict and their work produced in conjunction with Press Gazette.
Buttress, whose winning work was selected by a national design competition through the Royal Society of Sculptors, said: “This memorial is about presence rather than proclamation. Journalism at its best is an act of service, often quiet, frequently risky and, in the most tragic cases, fatal.
“My ambition was to create a work that acknowledges loss while leaving space for reflection, humility and care. It is a memorial shaped as much by what is felt as what is seen.”
Buttress was announced as the winning artist by Chris Elmore MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Foreign Office, at an event hosted by Bloomberg in London on Wednesday night.
The description of the artwork says: “Conceived as rays of light, the columns are arranged in a Fibonacci spiral, creating an immersive space that functions both as a beacon and a place of quiet reflection.
“Polished stainless steel and cast glass surfaces will mirror the surrounding landscape, while the aluminium is designed to weather naturally over time, reinforcing the memorial’s connection to the passage of time.”
The memorial is intended to act as a place of solace to the families that have lost loved ones and somewhere that offers recognition to the journalists.
Karola Zakrzewska, whose brother Pierre was killed by a Russian shell while reporting for Fox News in Ukraine in 2022, said: “When a journalist is killed, the story often moves on quickly, but grief doesn’t. On The Record matters because it says publicly and unequivocally that these lives, and this work, will not be forgotten.
“Knowing that my brother will be remembered alongside others who believed in telling the truth means more than I can easily put into words.”
The winner was decided by a panel of judges including Baud, outgoing Tate director Maria Balshaw and public sculpture expert Mark Richards FRSS.
Chair of On the Record trustees Sarah Sands, former editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and the Evening Standard, said: “This memorial to journalists covering conflicts, together with the online archive, will ensure that their names and work will not be lost to the news cycle.
“It is a lasting statement that the truth matters, and we will remember the courage and sacrifice of those who died for it.”
The memorial will be installed, likely in 2027, once its fundraising target has been reached and the necessary permissions have been granted.
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