Yesterday the deaths of two journalists, American reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, made headlines around the world. The two died during the shelling of the Syrian city Homs by the forces of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Hassad.
I knew Marie for a while years ago, when we both worked for the news agency United Press International in New York City. We wrote daily stories about everything from local murders to the doings of state and city legislatures. For a while, Marie also covered the news in Trenton, New Jersey--a bureau that was not considered a prime assignment, to say the least. Although most reporters (including me) were happy to remain on the local beat, Marie always wanted to go abroad and report on stories around the world. I knew she would do it. Her drive, professionalism and intelligence stood out even then. It was no surprise when she was later transferred to Paris and became bureau chief.
After that, she moved to The Sunday Times in London, where she did most of her reporting. She wrote from the world’s danger zones: the Middle East, Libya, Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone. In 2001 she was ambushed in Sri Lanka, where she was covering the civil war, and lost an eye. That’s why her photographs show her with an eye patch. Of course, she continued her work.
Her latest assignment in Homs was beyond difficult. She had to slip into the country and travel under fire to the city that has been shelled daily now for close to three weeks, and then find the refugees who were barely surviving under horrible conditions. She did all that, and spoke via telephone to the BBC and CNN's Anderson Cooper about the thousands of women and children huddling in basement shelters. She knew that what is happening in Homs goes beyond civil war; it is a humanitarian crisis.
Marie didn’t have a team of producers and assistants; as with all her assignments, she had a notebook, a satellite phone and maybe a laptop. She lived with the same physical discomfort as the people she was covering. According to The New York Times, she was working in a “makeshift media center” that may have been targeted by Syrian troops. The center was shelled, and Marie was killed as she tried to escape.
Although she covered wars and conflicts that had global consequences, she never lost sight of the individuals whose lives were crushed by them. Earlier this week, she told Cooper about seeing a baby die. "The baby's death was just heartbreaking, possibly because it was so quiet,” she said. “The doctor said there's nothing we can do...My heart just broke."
British Prime Minister David Cameron praised her in Parliament, calling her “talented and respected.” According to news reports, the tribute was notable because Cameron offered it on the floor of Parliament before beginning a routine question-and-answer session with legislators.
In the midst of all the heated political attacks on that horrible beast known as “the media,” we sometimes forget what real journalists do. They straightforwardly tell the truth no matter how controversial or dangerous that may be. They want their audience to know about critical issues.
I've always thought that one of the most horrific things about political dissidents, rebels and prisoners around the world is that too few people know of their cause, or their suffering. What is it like to experience constant violence, or languish forgotten or dying amid subhuman conditions in a prison, and know that there’s almost no one who cares or even knows about the injustices you’re fighting against?
During her 25 years as a foreign correspondent, Marie Colvin did everything she could to make sure that didn’t happen. After her mother, Rosemarie, learned of Marie’s death, she told a reporter, "She was absolutely dedicated to doing what she did at the highest level . . . It's the way she always was.”
I don’t want to exaggerate my connection with Marie; we were colleagues for just a short time. I still grieve for her, though, and somewhere in there is pride at having known an extraordinary woman who stood out as one of the very few people in the world who could tell us the stories we must know.
