A Colleague Remembers War Correspondent Marie Colvin

Journalist Marie Colvin. (AP/Sunday Times in London)

Last week, we spoke with Stephen Farrell of the New York Times about the death of his colleague, Anthony Shadid.

This week, two other western journalists died in Syria — killed while covering the unrest and violence in Homs: Marie Colvin of London’s Sunday Times and Remi Ochlik, a French photographer.

Farrell knew Colvin for years and helped get her out of Sri Lanka where she had been injured while covering the civil war there. Farrell met her in a hospital in Colombo and said she was worried about losing her eye, which she did, but she also felt it was important to cover the story.

“There was human worry and concern and fear, and [she was] very very concerned for her family, because she knew how worried they’d be,” Farrell told Here & Now‘s Robin Young.

“But at the same time a consummate professional who felt that this was a very, very difficult place to get to but she had to go there to tell the world what was happening.”

‘The Preeminent Correspondent Of Our Age’

Farrell says that he grew up in the UK admiring Colvin’s work.

“When I was a young journalist in Britain she was one of the preeminent correspondents of our age and I remember reading the Sunday Times and just marveling at her courage and her humanity,” Farrell said.

YouTube: Marie Colvin’s Last Interview With Anderson Cooper (Graphic)

Guest:

Stephen Farrell, reporter for New York Times

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

Anonymous

Marie Colvin was from my hometown of Oyster Bay New York. I have been discussing her death with hometown friends of mine (on FaceBook, of course) and the uniform opinion was that we are all shocked at her death and amazed at her courage. I personally did not know her (my older brother went to HS with her) but was a friend of her brothers Mike and Billy. I now am far more cognizant of what is going on in Syria and what the stakes are. Seeing the video last night of residents of Homs publically mourning her death left me feeling that if you need to have an epitath – that is a pretty good one.
Fionajclarke

watching a two year old boy draw his last breath - the result of shrapnel wounds to his left lung. am thankful that i have viewed this in the comfort and security of my lounge room? am i thankful that it is not my son? am i thankful that I will wake in the morning? am i thankful that the evening’s news has cost both a correspondent and photographer’s life. what am i meant to get from this. i can’t make sense of anything. thankyou for all that i have. rip marie colvin
Nalliah Thayabharan

Death is tragic and no one is happy when another human gets killed. The said correspondent’s employer is reported to have advised her to leave the city of Hom as it was not safe, but she had opted to stay behind and faced the consequences: most sane people would say that the step she took was sheer folly rather than courage, bravery or a desire for truth.

The fact that does not get highlighted enough, sadly, is that hundreds of thousands of soldiers are forced to go to war and get maimed or killed defending their country. Yet, there are only a few to praise their valiant actions.

War correspondents, as well as international NGOs involved in doing charity, survive on the misery of others. If there are no wars, there will be no news to emanate from these so-called theatres of war – an odd term to describe locations full of death and destruction, with nothing resembling any acting – and the ‘brave’ correspondents will have to look for alternative employment.

The saddest state of affairs is that the West, which thinks it is clean as a whistle when it comes to the issue of the violation of human rights, survives on exporting mayhem and destruction. The countries labelling themselves as developed nations foment dissension among the peoples in places that somehow had managed to carry on in their own way, and provide backing and material support to their lackeys to attack the legally constituted establishments in nations that are not ready to tow the line demanded by the West. The weapons for the so-called freedom struggles, of course, are those produced in factories in the West, a move that provides employment to their men and women. The initiators of trouble, if they fail in their endeavours, are then encouraged to leave their home countries to settle in the West, who then constitute a dependable ally to continue their work from a distance, away from their homelands.

When the destruction is complete, it is time for the peace merchants and the infrastructure rebuilders to descend en masse in the trouble spots to tell the ‘natives’ how they should solve their problems. Of course, it comes at a price: approximately 80%, or at times even more, of the so-called aid is spent on enviable salaries, accommodation in luxury condominiums and comfortable transport for their expatriate staff.

Do we really want live images of soldiers, their enemies or the civilians caught in the conflicts getting blown up relayed to our TVs or computer screens? Dismembered bodies or blood-soaked clothes are not among the prettiest sights that one would like to witness at any time of the day. As far as areas of conflict are concerned, what the average person would wish to see is an outcome with some form of settlement rather than the ghoulish path that the deliverance process had to traverse.

It is time that those who opted to put their heads out to be chopped when there were people waiting with raised swords in their hands to grant their wish are projected as heroes. Genuine heroism is when one risks his life and limb to save those who attacked him or ventures out to liberate the near and dear of the ones who were shooting you.