Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
The journalist as a peacemonger
ROGER McKENZIE wishes all reporting from wars carried a clarion call for peace from journalists placing themselves firmly on the side of its victims rather than being stenographers for those who champion war
Martha Gellhorn with Ernest Hemingway and Chinese General Yu Hanmou, Commander-in-Chief of the 12th Army Group from 1938–44, in Chongqing, China, 1941 [Unknown/Public domain]

HOW long can we keep scrolling past the decapitated bodies constantly appearing on our telephone screens?

We have the options of closing our eyes, or moving on to something more edifying like the picture of a cat, or simply turning off our phones altogether.

I don’t hold the view that seeing the real impact of war on our screens somehow desensitises us or makes us less caring.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Relatives of Palestinian child Salem Hussein, 12, killed in an Israeli army bombardment of Gaza, mourn beside his body at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, July 22, 2025
North Africa / 24 July 2025
24 July 2025

For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE

Sudanese displaced families take shelter in a school after being evacuated by the Sudanese army from areas once controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Omdurman, Sudan, March 23, 2025
Northeast Africa / 11 July 2025
11 July 2025
OPPORTUNITY BECKONS: BRICS member states family photograph - In the shadow of the Sugarloaf Mountain - during the 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 6 2025. (L to R) Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov, Crown Prince of UAE Khaled bin Mohamed Al Nahyan, President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, Premier of China Li Qiang, Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed, P
The Future / 11 July 2025
11 July 2025

ROGER McKENZIE expounds on the motivation that drove him to write a book that anticipates a dawn of a new, fully liberated Africa – the land of his ancestors

Similar stories
A NIGHTMARE WE CAN’T
IGNORE: Desperate children
queue for
Features / 2 December 2024
2 December 2024
In a powerful speech, celebrated Scottish-Egyptian actor and campaigner KHALID ABDALLA addressed the rally for Palestine on Whitehall this past Saturday on bearing witness to genocide’s unbearable truths
A woman mourns over the bodies of victims from an Israeli ai
Editorial: / 17 November 2024
17 November 2024
STARVED AND BOMBED: Displaced Palestinian children queue for
Features / 21 October 2024
21 October 2024
The remarkable resilience of Palestinians is a powerful example of human courage and dignity in the face of terrible violence, writes VIJAY PRASHAD
Speakers (left to right) Roger McKenzie, Jeremy Corbyn, Kate
Features / 15 October 2024
15 October 2024
ROGER McKENZIE reports on how peace activists in Britain are uniting diverse struggles against war, climate change and racism to build a powerful force for global justice in an era of deepening conflict