Louw’s picture of Martin Luther King remains historic

As the world commemorated this week the assassination of American Civil Rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, South African media community also remembers SA photographer Joseph Louw.

Louw was the only photographer to get pictures of Dr King seconds after he was shot dead in April 1968.

Former SABC News Editor Joe Thloloe remembers Louw as an excellent journalist. He says when Louw took the picture of King, it was a historic moment.

Louw, who was booked three rooms away from Dr King’s hotel room, was working on a documentary on the Civil Rights Leader.

Listen to sound below:

Louw is one Journalist who has paved the way for SA media globally, his pictures have been used over 50 years since King’s assassination.

Thloloe says Journalists today can learn to be relentless from legends like Louw and cease every opportunity to capture a moment.

Listen to sound below:

Thloloe says because of journalists like Louw, it is important that Freedom of Expression thrives.  He says to preserve the legacy of such journalists, we need to have a form of memorial where we see the work of the likes of Louw.

“Journalists sacrificed their lives to tell South Africans stories. These are people who need to be remembered in a Hall of Fame.”

Joe Louw, who also worked for SABC, died in Johannesburg at the age of 64, in 2004.

Watch Joseph Louw interview after Martin Luther King’s assassination :

Video courtesy of THIRTEEN