Sunday Times - Leading Article
A leading 2019 article from the Sunday Times on Marie Colvin and the murderous tyrant Bashar al-Assad.
"Marie’s fearless reporting from Baba Amr, a besieged enclave of Homs, infuriated the Assad regime."
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/a-victory-for-marie-colvin-over-a-murderous-tyrant-gfvng266g
A victory for Marie Colvin over a murderous tyrant
Marie Colvin, the Sunday Times war correspondent, gave an eloquent address in honour of fallen journalists at St Bride’s Church in London before she was killed in Syria. “Covering a war means going to places torn by chaos, destruction and death and trying to bear witness. It means trying to find the truth in a sandstorm of propaganda when armies, tribes and terrorists clash,” she said. “We can and do make a difference in exposing the horrors of war.”
The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, thought he could hide the truth by killing the messenger. That Marie was deliberately killed by his regime in 2012 is not in doubt. After a legal battle led by her sister, Cathleen Colvin, a US judge last week ruled that she was “specifically targeted because of her profession” and ordered Syria to pay $302.5m (£231m) in compensation. It is a landmark victory that proves the enduring power of her testimony.
With her distinctive eye patch — the result of losing sight in one eye under fire in Sri Lanka — Marie knew all about the perils of war reporting. But, as she foretold in her speech at St Bride’s, journalists were facing a new challenge. “It has never been more dangerous to be a war correspondent, because the journalist in the combat zone has become a prime target.”
Marie’s fearless reporting from Baba Amr, a besieged enclave of Homs, infuriated the Assad regime. Painstakingly gathered testimony from a Syrian defector and other sources showed that plans were laid at the highest levels to silence her. Paul Conroy, the photographer who accompanied Marie, recalled how the incoming shells “bracketed” their makeshift shelter before closing in on their target. Marie was killed along with Rémi Ochlik, a French photojournalist. It was a war crime that cannot go unpunished.
Paul was hit in the leg and was lucky to survive. Like Marie’s sister he has made it his mission to hold Assad to account and seizing as many of his foreign assets as possible is an important step. The money will be devoted to humanitarian causes supported by the Marie Colvin Memorial Fund. Beyond that, the United Nations should formally recognise as a war crime the deliberate killing of journalists.
The Assad regime thought it could silence Marie with one foul act. It was wrong. A documentary, Under the Wire, chronicles Paul’s last days in Homs with Marie. A biography, In Extremis, has been written by Lindsey Hilsum, the Channel 4 News war reporter. A Private War, starring the Hollywood actress Rosamund Pike as Marie, will open in cinemas this month. Even in death Marie’s reporting continues to shame Assad. She represents the very best of her profession and we are proud of her legacy.
