Journalists in the line of fire-2

SUNDAY TIMES JOURNALIST MARIE COLVIN AND PHOTOGRAPHER REMI OCHLIK.

In 2001 Marie Colvin lost her eye in an ambush in the Sri Lankan civil war. She described the harrowing experience in a speech she gave in November 2010 on the importance of war reporting:

I had gone to the northern Tamil area from which journalists were banned and found an unreported humanitarian disaster. As I was smuggled back across the internal border, a soldier launched a grenade at me and the shrapnel sliced into my face and chest. He knew what he was doing.

Yesterday the US-born Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed by shelling in the Syrian city of Homs. A veteran war correspondent, Colvin worked for Britain's Sunday Times for more than 25 years covering conflict.

Read the text of Colvin’s November 2010 speech here: “Our mission is to report these horrors of war with accuracy and without prejudice”.

Also read a tribute to photographer Remi Ochlik here: “Parting Glance”.

• Also read: "Journalists in the line of fire-1".

• UPDATE (June 6, 2016): Listen to this superb podcast produced by American media icons Bob Garfield and Brooke Gladstone on the journalists being held hostage in Syria, one of the most dangerous places in the world today for journalists: Kidnapped.