‘Disappearing’ Font Helps News Outlets Bring Attention To Imprisoned Journalists

As publications across the globe marked World Press Freedom Day, one statistic weighed heavily on many minds: more journalists are disappearing than ever before. According to Reporters Without Borders, a record 533 reporters were detained last year.

Not to mention, the number of journalists killed rose to 57, while 65 reporters remain in hostage situations, and 49 are still missing. Unfortunately, these are only the cases that have been reported, which means there could be many more at risk worldwide.

As such, creative agency 180 Amsterdam partnered with the international organization Free Press Unlimited to highlight the issue. The campaign, dubbed The Erased Font, hopes to make the “invisible” problem of censorship visible—because the public can’t read what’s never published.

As part of the initiative, the customizable font will be made available to publications around the world to use in place of their default typeface. But it’s not just simple as serif or sans serif. In fact, The Erased Font uses “ligatures” to automatically censor words in a paragraph of text.

This technical feature has been programmed to erase one word for every journalist imprisoned. Throughout an article, each censored word will be connected to a real reporter, representing the past topics they’ve written about.

In order to protect the identities of the journalists currently being held, their names will not be published. Instead, readers will be able to learn the name of the country that has imprisoned them. The font, which currently represents 363 reporters, will be updated annually.

To ensure publications could access the typeface conveniently, 180 teamed up with technology firm Wonderland to provide the code for the font on the open-source platform GitHub. Now, everyone from news outlets to bloggers will be able to join the movement.

Head here to read more about the journalists who are risking jail time to bring the truth to light and to support their work.

[via LBB Online and The Erased Font, images via The Erased Font]