One of the most noticeable features of war correspondent, Marie Colvin, is the eye patch she wore. This is not the only scar of her career spanning more than thirty years. Journalists reporting on conflicts across the world require an amount of bravery, courage, and commitment to what they are reporting about, but Marie Colvin took this to another level.
Following orders from the Syrian government, the building which Colvin had broadcasted from was attacked and she lost her life. Colvin had been warned the situation was dangerous many times. She still believed the stories she had heard and the sights she had seen needed to be shared in despite of the danger.
Many individuals who were innocent bystanders of war have had their stories told thanks to Colvin’s courage, integrity, and commitment to journalism.
She was credited with saving the lives of 1,500 women and children
Her main objective
Throughout Colvin’s career, she looked at victims of war – the civilians who had not chosen to be caught up in the conflict but had been forced into it simply by their geography.
She once said, “I care about the experience of those most directly affected by war, those asked to fight, and those who are just trying to survive.”
The beginnings of her career
Marie Colvin’s intention was not always to be a journalist: she began by studying Anthropology at Yale University. After graduating, Colvin accepted a job with the United Press International, reporting the local news of Trenton before being made the Parisian Bureau Chief for the company.
She then moved to The Sunday Times in 1985. Between 1986 and 1995, Colvin was the newspaper’s Middle East correspondent then changed to become their Foreign Affairs correspondent.
One of the many impactful interviews that Colvin conducted was in 1986 when she became the first person to interview the leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi.
Challenges within her career
Whilst reporting on the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2001, Colvin lost sight in her left eye after being hit by a piece of shrapnel from a grenade belonging to the Sri Lankan Army. This was after she made herself known as a journalist. She told Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 News that the individual who attacked her was aware of what he was doing. Despite these severe injuries however, Colvin managed to meet her deadline.
Her dedication to her job did not come without its challenges however. After the injuries inflicted on her in Sri Lanka, Colvin had to be hospitalised following her development of PTSD. Colvin also divorced twice following her two marriages to journalist Patrick Bishop. It was due to her commitment to her job that Marie Colvin sadly lost her life in February 2012.
Her death
During the Syrian Civil War, the Syrian government tried to prevent foreign journalists from entering the country. Colvin, however, ignored this demand and entered Syria.
Across the BBC, CNN, and ITV on the evening of February 21, Marie Colvin delivered her last broadcast stating that “the Syrians are not allowing civilians to leave … anyone who gets on the street is hit by a shell. If they are not hit by a shell they are hit by snipers. There are snipers all around on the high buildings. I think the sickening thing is the complete merciless nature. They are hitting the civilian buildings absolutely mercilessly and without caring and the scale of it is just shocking.”
Shortly after this broadcast she was bombed by an “home-made explosive device.” Both Marie Colvin and the photojournalist Rémi Ochlik died in the explosion. Photographer, Paul Conroy, however, survived the attack.
The Syrian government claimed the device was planted by terrorists while the three were fleeing an unofficial media building which was being shelled by the Syrian Army. Paul Conroy rejected this account and said that the building had been targeted by artillery fire.
Awards and recognition
Due to her actions in East Timor in 1999, Colvin won the International Women’s Media Foundation award for her courage. She was credited with saving the lives of 1,500 women and children whilst in a compound surrounded by Indonesian backed forces. Colvin refused to abandon the individuals and reported on the situation both on television and in a newspaper.
When speaking about the decisions she took and the effects of war on civilians during her career, Colvin said, “these people who have no voice, I feel I have a moral responsibility towards them, that it would be cowardly to ignore them. If journalists have a chance to save their lives, they should do so.”
Both award panels and civilians recognised how incredible Colvin was. Marie Colvin was named Foreign Reporter of the Year by the British Press Awards in both 2001 and 2010 . Alongside this, the Foreign Press Association named her the Journalist of the Year in 2000.
The legacy she left behind
In July 2016, Marie Colvin’s sister, Cathleen Colvin, filed civil action against the Syrian Arab Republic for extrajudicial killing after saying she had proof that her sister had been directly targeted.
In 2019, an American court ordered the Syrian government to pay $300 million in punitive damages after ruling that they were liable for the death of Marie Colvin.
Since her death in 2012, the world has not forgotten the incredible woman that Marie Colvin was. In 2018, Rosamund Pike stared as Colvin in a film based on her life named A Private War. Straight after her death, tributes were paid across the world, and a funeral which was attended by 300 people took place on March 12.
Abby Titmuss
Featured image courtesy of Caroline Cadwell via Flickr. Image license can be found here. No changes were made to this image.
