Editor’s Note: The Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame selected 11 journalists in its 2025 class: Cynthia Canty, Alex Cruden, Kirthmon F. Dozier, John Flesher, Cindy Goodaker, Daymon J. Hartley, Dorothy Jurney, Keith Owens, Pat Rencher, Jam Sardar and David Zeman. Six of the 11 ― Cruden, Dozier, Hartley, Jurney, Owens and Zeman ― are Free Press alumni. The speech below is from Daymon J. Hartley, an outstanding award winning photo journalist who has contributed photos from the front lines to the People’s Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo newspapers for decades.
‘Desmond Tutu, who I photographed and spent time with, famously said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.“‘ Daymon J. Hartley
Good evening Family, Friends, Colleagues and Comrades.
I am grateful and I am humbled to be inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame tonight.
As a high school dropout who grew up poor and angry, I never dreamed I’d experience recognition like this. I wish my mom and dad could see me now.
A lot of thank you’s are in order—especially to my family.
To Margaret, my nominator, my wife, my partnerand our family’s bedrock for almost 35 years.
To my daughters Karina, Nicole, Robin and to my son Nik.
Also, to George Waldman, who coaxed me into being nominated, and others who wrote lettersand who remembered our work together.
Your words sit with me.
To the General Baker Institute folks who are here, and a special recognition to Marian Kramer who has been a friend and comrade in the struggle for social justice for over 50 years.
I also am honored to have some of the courageous MSU students who led the local Palestinian encampment here tonight.
And a shout out to the 19 MSU students and supporters who were arrested on Thursday bringing attention to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
I am in awe of your sacrifice and your example.
I could take these few minutes I have to talk ONLY about MY career, the stories, the people.
It has been half a century of bearing witness to human struggle—and human triumph.
But I can’t go there without FIRST taking a moment to reflect on those who bore witness and never made it home.
The Bible says the truth shall set you free.
Today, more and more, the truth will get you killed.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 2024 was the deadliest year for our profession since they began counting.
Much of that is because of what is happening in Gaza.
More journalists died covering the genocide in Gaza than anywhere else in the world.
More than 200 journalists—most of them Palestinians—erased by Israeli bombs and bullets supplied by the United States and paid for with our tax dollars.
And more than 50,000 Palestinians murdered, 70% of them women and children.
Gaza and the Palestinian people are near and dear to me.
I remember covering the First Intifada there for the Detroit Free Press in the late ’80s.
I remember what it felt like when I realized that the truth I was seeing on the ground in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip was not the story that was being told back home.
And I remember being ordered to return home for capturing exactly what I saw.
It was scary.
It tested my understanding of and belief in our profession. But I never thought I would die because of the photos I took—photos the paper ultimately stood behind and published.
Things have changed.
And yet, I am hopeful because so many journalists—especially young journalists—still run toward the story.
Wherever it is.
They still raise their cameras—and their phones—still press record and still write what must be written.
They have no guns, no battalions, no nation behind them. Only an independent spirit and a moral compass that drive them to show and to tell.
They are as courageous as any soldier on the battlefield.
Regardless of what we were taught and how hard we try to practice objectivity, I can’t imagine any of us really believe that journalism in these times is neutral.
How can we be neutral and objective when some things are just flat out wrong?
Desmond Tutu, who I photographed and spent time with, famously said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
And speaking of oppressors—you know I wouldn’t be true to myself or the ideal of a free press if I didn’t take some political license tonight.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini defined fascismas the merger of the corporations with the state. Interestingly he was a so-called journalist who started his own newspaper to spread his fascist propaganda.
SOUND FAMILIAR?
A few years ago, our own government through Citizen’s United declared that corporations are persons.
And Trump has taken it to a whole new level by building a cultural movement around the MAGA brand of fascism—powered by his propaganda machines X, Truth Social and Fox News.
The most influential press/social media today are either government or corporate owned and controlled.
The only thing that can turn the tide away from fascism now is the people.
And only ones who can give voice, visibility and validity to the people are independent-minded journalists.
I am particularly focused on our youth, and I would encourage you to be as well.
They’re ready to build the world THEY want to live in, and they bring incredible energy, drive and optimism to that work.
I have so much faith in them because, if you study history, students and young people have always been on the right side:
The Civil Rights Movement
Opposition to the Vietnam War
Apartheid in South Africa
And more recently:
The Occupy Wall Street movement.
The Black Lives Matter movement
The Bernie Sanders Movement
The anti-genocide, pro-Palestinian encampments at 117 colleges and universities last year.
Young people are on the frontlines demanding an end to the destruction of our planet, the slaughter of Palestinians, and the suffocating fascism of Trump and Musk and the billionaires who see this nation, and really the whole world,as a playground for their plunder.
Listen to their chants, read their picket signs, learn from their traumas and tell their stories.
You will see a revolutionary narrative emerging for humanity.
A narrative in which every person would be allowed to be who they are, love whom they wish, have the necessaries of life and not live in constant fear of violence, war and suffering.
As I have for the last 50 years, I plan to spend the rest of my days making sure their efforts are seen and heard above the noise and chaos of the powerful.
I implore you to do the same.
Thank you.
Daymon J. Hartley is known for his social-issue capturing lens. As a Free Press staff photographer from 1983 to July 1995, he shot everything from breaking news and crime stories to overseas combat stories in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Palestine, and Israel. He was nominated for five Pulitzer Prizes, and was twice named a finalist. In 1990, he was named the Michigan Press Photographer of the Year. He has since worked as a freelance photographer.
