WEDNESDAY was a memorable day even when glimpsed through the dark curfews of Sri Lanka and the devastation brought about by a well-heeled cell of Islamist terror. It was the day that politicians from across the spectrum congregated to pay their respects to the dead freelance journalist Lyra McKee, shot during clashes between rioters and police in the Creggan area of Derry.

The moment that resonated most clearly for me was when a local Catholic priest, Father Martin Magill, addressed the congregation of St Anne’s Cathedral. He looked down on the pews below, which hosted a rare gathering of all Northern Ireland’s political leaders, and representatives from the main parties in Westminster, and saw responsibility in their midst.

Charged with emotion, Father Magill held narrow political tribalism in part responsible for Lyra’s death. “Why in God’s name does it take the death of a 29-year-old woman with her whole life in front of her to get us to this point?”

The priest’s words electrified the service and sparked a spontaneous standing ovation. Political leaders exposed and wrong-footed clumsily rose to join in the ovation, not sure whether they should clap or hang their heads in shame.

But it was not all political theatre. The priest had a humorous touch too. He confided that his last exchange with Lyra was on Twitter when she tweeted a photo of herself dressed in a nun’s veil with a glass of cider accompanied with the words: “Got roped into performing as part of a Sister Act tribute act for Foyle Hospice. Hey @MartinJMagill, you need any help with mass tomorrow?”

It was a typically modern piece of self-deprecation which revealed Lyra’s commitment to the community and awareness that Catholicism, once the sour-faced power over Ireland, was up for a laugh.

As Father Magill excoriated the politicians, a smaller gathering of friends and journalists congregated at the Donald Dewar statue in Glasgow to pay their respects. This was a smaller rag-tag gathering but no less important for that. It attracted the next generation from under-funded areas of journalism: online, data-journalism, self-publishing and voices from the gay and lesbian community.

I saw in this a different kind of respect, a confederation of freelancers and those that earn a living away from the big titles and the compromises of the mainstream. It was a touching reminder that journalism is about values as well as income.

In that spirit, what we should now do is take time to reflect to remember the other four journalists that have lost their lives this year. The 2019 World Press Freedom Index compiled by non-governmental organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shows that five journalist have been killed in 2019 already. Lyra McKee is one, the others are Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela in Ghana, Leonardo Gabriel Hernandez in Honduras, Mohamed Ben Khalifa in Libya and Rafael Murua Manriquez in Mexico. Like Lyra, Khalifa was killed in cross-fire, while the remaining three were the victims of much grislier murders.

We live in confusing and dangerous times for journalists. The rise of right-wing populism, Islamist extremism, authoritarian governance, fearless criminal gangs and the polarisation of news shared on social media are among the obvious trends that have complicated reporting, endangered journalists’ lives and imperilled newsgathering.

According to Reporters Without Borders: “The number of countries regarded as safe, where journalists can work in complete security, continues to decline, while authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media.”

The organisation’s latest report claims that “hostility towards journalists expressed by political leaders in many countries has incited increasingly serious and frequent acts of violence that have fuelled an unprecedented level of fear and danger for journalists”.

The Scandi nations, where Scotland often looks to escape from the fog of Westminster, unsurprisingly rate highly in the 2019 index of press freedom. Norway is ranked first for the third year running while Finland (up two places) has taken second place from the Netherlands (down one at 4th), largely because two reporters who exposed organised crime have had to live under permanent police protection.

The index is carefully weighted, factoring in death threats, online harassment, media legislation and imprisonments of journalists.

Sri Lanka, caught in the midst of horrendous terrorist attacks, is 126th on the index, criticised for an over-bearing state media, for unresolved killing of journalists under a previous regime and control over social media, although many have accepted that the speed with which the government closed down Facebook and WhatsApp was to prevent false rumours and inter-community polarisation, rather than to restrict informed journalism.

So what of the other four – the journalists that shared the tragic honour of falling in the same year as Lyra McKee?

It was two men riding a motorcycle that shot and killed Ghanaian Ahmed Divela – a member of the investigative journalism outlet Tiger Eye Private Investigations – as he was driving in Accra, the capital of Ghana, in January. During an appearance on national television, a member of parliament for the ruling New Patriotic Party had threatened Divela for his involvement in investigative reporting on corruption in Ghanaian soccer.

The National: Ahmed DivelaAhmed Divela

Divela was a reporter working on Betraying The Game, a documentary which saw the work of more than 70 match officials and football administrators across Africa face scrutiny. It is a story that has its roots in Ghana but has implications elsewhere. International sports agents, money laundering, exploitative youth development systems and rogue bidding wars scar the global game. Several players from Ghana have played in Scotland’s SPFL, including the former Hearts midfielder Laryea Kingston and recent Hibernian loan signing Thomas Agyepong.

There is no suggestion that either of those players were part of any wrongdoing. On the contrary, Kingston was prominent in calling for the resignation of the Ghana FA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi, who the murdered journalist had exposed, and Agyepong was a product of Accra’s Right To Dream Academy, a charity that aims to be a safe place for talent to thrive and which holds trials in the neighbourhood where Divela was killed.

In March, Leonardo Gabriel Hernández was shot and killed near his home in the city of Nacaome, in southern Honduras. Hernandez hosted a vociferous local radio show, Voice Of The People, which was a thorn in the side of local politicians and businessmen. According to police reports, Hernandez was targeted because of his criticism of organised criminal groups, including the notorious MS-13 gang which is active across central America and is believed to have links to the right-wing of the American Republican Party.

The National: Leonardo Gabriel HernándezLeonardo Gabriel Hernández

Another of the victims of 2019 is Mohamed Ben Khalifa, a photo-journalist who was killed accompanying a militia patrolling the Qaser Ben Ghashir area of Libya. He died of wounds sustained by shrapnel from a shell fired at the UN-backed militia.

The National: Mohamed Ben KhalifaMohamed Ben Khalifa

Lastly, the fifth victim in the year we lost Lyra McKee was the Mexican journalist Rafael Murua Manriquez, who was abducted, and his body later found near an expressway in Baja California Sur.

No motive has been found for his murder, although those close to Manriquez, the director of a community radio station, claim he lived in constant fear having exposed local criminal gangs and the failures of the Mexican navy who are prominently part of the failing “war on drugs”.

The National: Rafael Murua ManriquezRafael Murua Manriquez

The Burmese editor and former political prisoner Win Tin once said: “Freedom of information is the freedom that allows you to verify the existence of all the other freedoms.” It remains a fitting tribute to Lyra McKee, although I suspect she would have said it dressed in a nun’s habit and drinking a bottle of cider.

With thanks to Reporters Without Borders and the New York based Committee To Protect Journalists