Remember Omran? The five-year-old Syrian boy placed in an ambulance, in shock and bleeding after he was rescued amid the rubble of a crumbled building?

The only reason you or I can even picture this innocent boy and know his story is because journalists risked their own lives to capture this moment and to shine a bright spotlight on the need for dramatic action in Syria to help save lives.

But there’s a frightening growing trend in the journalist community – and we need your help today to reverse the tide. In the last 10 years alone, nearly 800 journalists have been killed in the line of duty. Many more have been kidnapped, tortured or reported missing.

When journalists die, the information that they are struggling to get out to the world, dies with them. Reporters Without Borders is leading the effort as part of a worldwide coalition of organizations to defend journalists’ lives by calling on the United Nations to appoint a politically powerful Protector of Journalists, a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for the Safety of Journalists.

Journalists endure risk after risk – and sometimes pay the ultimate price with their lives to share their stories with us. The CIoJ supports this campaign for a UN Protector of Journalists, and individual members of the Institute are also encouraged to sign up to support this important initiative to #ProtectJournalists.