The funeral consisted of 300 people whose attendees included News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and former assistant secretary of state James Rubin, according to a report from The Guardian.

According to an article by Joe Pompeo, “Syria has barred foreign journalists from entering the country, and reporting from there has become extremely dangerous. Reports that the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad targeted the media compound where Colvin and other reporters had been staying further fueled news outlets’ fears about putting boots on the ground.”

Despite the bans from the government, several journalists such as the late-Anthony Shadid and Arwa Damon, a CNN correspondent were able to sneak into the country illegally.

However, after Colvin’s demise, news outlets, including a few of America’s most influential papers that have bureaus abroad, are beginning to be cautious about whether or not to send journalists in to Syria.

According to the article by Pompeo, Joe Kahn, foreign editor of The New York Times, in an interview with the Capital said, “We’re just going to have to see how the situation evolves in terms of whether or not it makes sense to try and send a photographer or reporter in. We were fairly reluctant to put anyone in the country illegally in the first place. And now with what happened to Anthony and then Marie Colvin, we’ll be very, very reluctant to sort of casually say to someone who wants to go in, ‘Yeah go ahead.’”

I feel that it’s high time that news organizations start being careful about the journalists they send in to and area like Syria. I understand that as journalists, we should go as far as we can for a story because we have an obligation to our readers, however, if it comes to the point that their lives will be in danger, then I think that there should be a limit.

From my study, I learnt one of the main fact as a journalist is to be objective, however in such situation news reports are almost all one sided.

In 2007, war photographer James Nachtwey gave an inspirational talk on his ambition on being a photojournalist in war:

“Society’s problems can’t be solved until they’re identified. On a higher plane, the press is a service industry, and the service it provides is awareness. Every story does not have to sell something. There’s also a time to give. That was a tradition I wanted to follow. Seeing the war created such incredibly high stakes for everyone involved and that visual journalism could actually become a factor in conflict resolution”

These are the reason why citizen journalist can never replace the professionals. I admit that the public do provide greater and sometime unique sources in news but yet again without these fully trained and experienced journalists  who willing to travel all the way to these war zone we will never find out whats going on in Syria today.

Once again, R.I.P to Marie Colvin and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik who rised their live for us to see what happen at the other end of the world.

“”He was forever romantic without sentimentality, melancholic yet optimistic, mystical yet believable; his love of the English landscape and fascination with its folklore enchanted much of his work” (Obituary by the Independent, 10 March 2012, on the late Richard Carpenter, writer and actor)

“”The most important thing you can do is to give a voice to people who have been silenced. And what else would I be doing?” (Quote from the late Pat Raftery – journalist who exposed child abuse in the Catholic Church, Independent- obituaries, 23 January 2012″

“We always have to ask ourselves whether the level of risk is worth the story. What is bravery and what is bravado?” (Quote from the late journalist Marie Colvin – Independent Obituary, 23 February 2012)

Frail looking Conroy has since made a miraculous recovery from his serious injuries.

The supporting evidence of a personal campaign, which I have been conducting against, Sky News and Press TV, is at last being exposed.  Take a look at this recent post.  read here. It is now becoming clear that even the portable telephone films were fake. Film has emerged of men staging events, using apparently,  injured children, whom are still distressed, to fabricate sympathy grabbing lies.

Sunday Times photographer, Paul Conroy, whom is allegedly an MI6 “Spook” whom escaped from Homs, in Syria, when it was liberated from the French Foreign Legion and other “Rebels,” by Syrian Military Forces, leaving behind the body of colleague Marie Colvin, appeared on Sky News on St. Patrick’s Day.  He spoke vehemently against the Assad regime.  He inferred that it was the regime which had planted car bombs in Syrian towns, which killed and injured many people. He warned us, without a trace of irony, not to believe a word spoken by the Assad regime.

It has been suggested that Conroy used this video as a means of passing a message to his “Runner” at MI6.

The “News Hen” of the day, to her credit, reminded him that he had absolutely no evidence to support his claims. He agreed, however he stressed that having been in Syria for three weeks, embedded with the “Rebels,” he knew exactly what was the reality on the ground.

I understood that the job of a News Reporter was to objectively report events.  Conroy, was with a group of journalists, all of whom have come under suspicion of being in the employ of various covert Intelligent Services, can make   no claim to objectivity. He can however make claim to having put the lives of honest journalists at risk.  More journalists are being killed while reporting conflict than ever before.

In Libya, it became clear from the lead-up to hostilities, that the journalists were reporting lies. Sky News, BBC and Press TV all failed to track down one single person from the huge number of Libyans whom supported Gadaffi. We were presented with footage of men in “flip-flops” shooting their guns in the air, at a safe distance from where the “real” hard men were slaughtering thousands of Libyans. It has been estimated that at least 140,000 were killed.

The most disgusting part of this sad tale, is the fact that people whom present the “News” are fully aware of the deception of which they are a part. Journalists’ always know the true story. Once upon a time they were brave enough to speak out.

During the Libyan Holocaust, I was so annoyed about the reporting of Press TV, that I wrote a few posts questioning the integrity of the reporting of the British teams of Johnnie Miller and Nick Jones and the biased version of events which they presented. Jones is now being held by one of the Tribal groups in Libya, on suspicion of spying. Would it not be nice if the Press could hold its head up and claim, with honesty, that they would not engage in that form of deceit?

From http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8434053/war-reporter-marie-colvin-laid-to-rest

Tags: Brave reporters and journalist, Marie Colvin, Syria

Hundreds of people gathered near New York City at the funeral of famed American war correspondent Marie Colvin, who was killed while covering the uprising in Syria.

The funeral, followed by a private cremation ceremony, was held in Oyster Bay, a quiet Long Island community close to where Colvin grew up before becoming a globe-trotting reporter for Britain’s Sunday Times.

Mourners joining Colvin’s mother Rosemarie and her family on Monday included media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Sunday Times, and John Witherow, editor of the British paper that Colvin joined in 1985.

The eulogy paid tribute to a woman who “trusted life” and “had a passion for her work”.

“Blessed are you Mary for your courage to be a voice to the voiceless,” a priest said, underlining the huge risks Colvin took to deliver on her passion.

Another prayer was said “for the many people who live in hunger and violence, especially those who live in Syria”.

Afterwards, the rose-strewn coffin was carried out of the church. A “beautiful service”, Murdoch said.

Witherow, meanwhile, recalled how hard it had been to get Colvin’s body out of the Syrian town of Homs, which for days after her death remained a battleground.

“It took one week and involved a tremendous amount of diplomacy,” he said, praising a journalist who “will be an inspiration” for colleagues.

Friends and family had paid their last respects over the weekend at a wake held at an Oyster Bay funeral home.

Colvin, 56, was a great survivor in the harsh world of war reporting, covering conflicts from Chechnya to the Arab Spring.

But she was unable to escape in the besieged city of Homs on February 22 when Syrian government rockets hit the house where she was staying along with other Western journalists.

She and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed, while a British photographer and a French reporter were wounded.

“Marie Colvin will always be in the hearts of each and every Syrian wherever they are,” wrote a mourner named Reem Faraj on the funeral home website.

“She was and will always be one of the heroes who made the cries of Syrians and other victims in the world be heard. The memories of those heroes will never die.”

“Marie, you were the bravest person I know and I don’t think you realised what an inspiration you were to us other women reporters,” added fellow Sunday Times journalist Christina Lamb. “We will miss you. Now I’ve met your mum i know where you got it from.”

Malek Jandali, a Syrian-American attending the funeral, said he wanted to salute a “beautiful soul, a courageous woman who sacrificed her life to expose the brutality of the Syrian regime”.

“We plan to have a square or a street for her in Homs,” he said.

There were also mourners from the Tamil community, which remembers Colvin for her reporting on the war in Sri Lanka, where she lost an eye in 2001, forcing her to wear an eye patch.

“She was an incredible voice for the Tamil people,” said Visuvanathan Rudrakamuran, who said he was an exiled Tamil official.

Colvin’s relatives – including her mother, two brothers and two sisters – are seeking money for the Marie Colvin Fund, which will “direct donations to charitable and educational organisations that reflect Marie’s lifelong dedication to humanitarian aid, human rights, journalism and education”.

The fund’s website is http://mariecolvin.org.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8434053/war-reporter-marie-colvin-laid-to-rest

You can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring.”

“Power is meaningless, when you are an enemy of the people.”

Mr Conroy, 47, was working with Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin when she was killed during a bombardment of a former rebel stronghold by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces last month.

Paul Conroy was cheered by anti-Assad protesters (PA)

He was smuggled out of Syria by opposition fighters and has since received treatment in the UK for leg injuries.

The photographer looked frail and had difficulty walking when he attended the 1,000-strong rebel protest in London on Saturday.

He was hugged by anti-Assad demonstrators before giving a speech calling for the UK government to sever ties with the Syrian regime and expel its diplomats, who he claimed should ‘stand in The Hague and answer for the crimes they have committed’.

Mr Conroy added he planned to use his status to campaign on behalf of the Syrian people and in particular those who risked their lives to get him out of the country.

‘Condolences go to every man, woman and child killed in Syria and everyone in the Free Syrian Army who died getting me out of the place,’ he said.

‘And also a message to the regime that really they shouldn’t be tolerated any more and any dialogue with them should be ceased.’

A rival demonstration was staged by President Assad’s UK-based supporters around a hundred metres away in Belgrave Square.

Police attended in large numbers to keep the two groups apart.

WCBS 880′s Sophia Hall On The Story

Download: hall_colvin1w_pm_120316.mp3|titles=Syrians%20Honor%20Fallen%20Journalist%20Marie%20Colvin%20At%20L.I.%20Home%20-%20WCBS%20880%20reporter%20Sophia%20Hall%20has%20the%20story.|artists=WCBS%20880

The Marie Colvin Convoy for Freedom of Syria arrived at the East Norwich home on Long Island Friday morning. Some came all the way from California.

“I think she was the first American journalist to actually lose her life trying to go to Syria and uncover what the Assad was doing. What they’re doing is absolutely atrocious,” said Racan Alhoch.

They presented Colvin’s mother, Rosemarie, with flowers and a condolence card.

A man brings flowers to the Colvin family home - East Norwich, NY - Mar 16, 2012 (credit: Sophia Hall / WCBS 880)

The gathering of friends and family then moved to a nearby park for a short ceremony.

“She was a journalist. She stood for what I think all journalists idealy hope for is to bring truth to what is happening in the world,” said Rosemarie Colvin. “This kind of thing honors that commitment.”

Marie Colvin worked for the Sunday Times of London.

She was killed on Feb. 22 when a Syrian army mortar struck the building that served as a makeshift media center in the village of Homs.

The war correspondent’s funeral on Monday was attended by hundreds of mourners, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

(TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Colvin, an award-winning journalist who worked for Britain’s The Sunday Times, died on Feb. 22 from government shelling in the city of Homs.

Newsday reports that the Marie Colvin Convoy for Freedom of Syria, which started in Los Angeles last week, is expected to arrive at the East Norwich home of Colvin’s family on Friday where they plan to present a Medal of Honor to the family.

The war correspondent’s funeral on Monday at St. Dominic Roman Catholic Church in Oyster Bay was attended by hundreds of mourners, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Colvin worked for The Sunday Times for more than 25 years and was at the forefront of international reporting.

Colvin is survived by two brothers, two sisters and her mother.

Please share your thoughts below…

(TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

This is the face of a brave woman who died telling the real story in Homs, Syria. She reported from war zones all over the globe. May her legacy be a country free from tyranny. In a world where women who get their tits out on TV are celebrated, Marie Colvin is my hero.

http://mariecolvin.org

WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs In Oyster Bay

Download: xirinachs_colvin1w_midday_120312.mp3|titles=Funeral%20Held%20For%20L.I.%20War%20Correspondent%20Killed%20In%20Syria%20-%20WCBS%20880%20Long%20Island%20Bureau%20Chief%20Mike%20Xirinachs%20has%20the%20story%20has%20the%20story.|artists=WCBS%20880

Marie Colvin, an award-winning journalist who worked for Britain’s The Sunday Times, died on Feb. 22 from government shelling in the city of Homs.

Colvin, 56, grew up in Oyster Bay. She was one of five children and graduated from Oyster Bay High School in 1974 and then went to Yale. She was an anthropology major and it wasn’t until after she attended a journalism seminar at Yale that she developed her passion for reporting.

Colvin had been working for The Sunday Times for more than 25 years. She was at the forefront of international reporting and lost her eye from a shrapnel wound in Sri Lanka in 2001.

A giant American flag was hung across Main Street in Oyster Bay to honor the slain journalist in the town where she grew up.

Colvin was remembered in a funeral Mass at St. Dominic Roman Catholic Church.

Her final report from Syria, chronicled what she called “The widows’ basement,” a cellar where women and children seek refuge from bombing in the same city where Colvin herself would later be killed.

Hours before she was killed, Colvin appeared on a live broadcast with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who asked her to compare the fighting in Syria with some of her other war assignments.

“The Syrian army is basically shelling a city of cold, starving civilians,” she said. “Every civilian house on the street has been hit.”

As Colvin described the destruction throughout the city, she said the building where she was staying was also hit.

Colvin is survived by two brothers, two sisters, and her mother.

[worldnow id=6833987 width=500 height=332 type=video]

Colvin’s family want her lifelong dedication to human rights, journalism and education to continue and has set up a fund at the Long Island Community Foundation.

Donations have already been received from around the country.

If you’d like to help, please send donations to:

Marie Colvin Fund at LICF
1864 Muttontown Road
Syosset, NY 11791

For more information about the fund, visit www.licf.org.

For much of the past year reportage from inside Syria came via Facebook and Twitter rather than from international journalists, most of whom were perched on the border somewhere trying to peer in and divine what was happening.  They succeeded rarely.  The other main source of information came from exile groups based in the UK and America and elsewhere, relying on their own sources inside Syria to feed out an account of events.

More latterly, international journalists have been allowed in, boosting information flow and increasing commentary but, it might be said, without yet actually providing much more enlightenment as to the true nature of affairs.  Sadly, too, there have been media deaths in both local and foreign ranks, with Marie Colvin’s death under fire in Homs escalating the kneejerk international calls to direction action, and Anthony Shadid’s robbing the world of one of its best voices on the subject.

In short, as the developments have unfolded and the complexities deepened, the levels of understanding  have not kept up.  A year on, though, what does it really look like?

First, to the surprise of many less seasoned observers, Bashar al-Assad is still there and looks like he might be for a while yet – the influential analysts Joshua Landis thinks it could well be 2013 before Bashar is under real pressure to go. (http://www.mepc.org/journal/middle-east-policy-archives/syrian-uprising-2011-why-asad-regime-likely-survive-2013?print )    The reasons for that are not hard to find.  Bashar holds power via a concatenation of minority interests, most of whom see little future for themselves in Syria if Bashar goes.  It is for that simple reason, behind which lie some real complexities of course, that the President still commands considerable support.  That is buttressed by his careful control over the military through his fellow Alawi officer and soldier caste, and especially of the intelligence services.  Those fervent for change read much into the very recent defection to the revolution of the Sunni Deputy Oil Minister, seeing that as the first of many.  That remains to be proven, though, and most of the analysis implicitly or explicitly locates most of the future via a sectarian prism.

Second, it becomes daily more obvious that the opposition is, in fact, a series of oppositions, none with a real sway or clear future.  That is beginning to cause real problems in Washington and elsewhere because it raises the question of whom to back and on what grounds.   (http://www.mei.edu/content/unite-syrias-opposition-first )    There might be more than a few policy mandarins in those world capitals remembering Ahmad Chalabi and what happened in Iraq during the policy-free zone phase after the fall of Saddam.  More recently, of course, events in Libya and Egypt demonstrate the extreme fluidity in opposition ranks in these sorts of uprisings, along with the absolute uncertainty of what such oppositions might do if they come to power.  Trying to identify a “legitimate” Syrian opposition team is now becoming a huge obstacle for international strategists.

This has been exacerbated by controversy over bodies such as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.  Based in London, this very early on became a prime source of news and ideas, but doubts soon emerged as to the authenticity of both the information and the people behind it. (http://www.chrisroubis.com/2012/01/sohr-syrian-observatory-for-human-rights-a-cheap-imitation-syrian-observatory-for-human-rights/ )    That in turn led to divisions within the broader Syrian expat community and that has prompted further questions of legitimacy in several quarters of the opposition.  That led by definition, especially before the wider media presence, to questions about really what was happening on the ground, with the Local Coordinating Committees that have been so active on Twitter being a prime source of at least basic information, especially as the number of “hot” points across the country increased.

As usual much of this coverage has divided into “superior” and “ordinary “categories, which is why the death of Shadid was so significant.   At the risk of a generalization, much of the best analysis has not appeared in the mainstream media.  The International Crisis Group has been outstanding with Peter Harling’s analyses being beacons of enlightenment, charting progressively the decaying but not finished position of the regime. (http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/01/24/collectively_failing_syrian_society )    Joshua Landis’ Syria Comment website has been similarly excellent.  There has been an edge in all this, too, with alleged media “bias” being raised on all sides amidst rising acrimony.  (http://www.facebook.com/aus4syria )     After all this is over, the role of media and social media might well be one of the more enduring research aspects, because the battle to control the imagery of the struggle is almost as significant as that on the ground.

Perhaps the most damaging factor has been the international paralysis concerning what approach to take towards this Syrian crisis.  More than in any of the other “Arab Spring” sites, that in Syria has been complicated by regional and international alliances, aspirations and anxieties.  Turkey has hosted the Syrian Free Army to help promote its regional significance.  The Iran bogey has made America especially strident towards Bashar, and exacerbated by its on-going relationship with Israel which has chosen these moments to tantalise with a strike possibility on Iran.  The Saudis and Bahrainis, no great bastions of democracy in any form, have urged Syria to democratize, clearly an opportunistic move to cement their own regional sway.  The UN Security Council veto on action by Russia and China raised a storm of outrage, but really was predictable given the regional niceties.  Now former UN boss Kofi Annan is visiting Syria, and some analysts almost see this as a last chance to get a middle ground between two polarities: Bashar relenting, or Bashar being shoved aside. (http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/Middle%20East%20North%20Africa/Iraq%20Syria%20Lebanon/Syria/B032-now-or-never-a-negotiated-transition-for-syria.pdf )

That interpretation alone in many respects reveals the threadbare international policy options with “no fly zones”, “ neutral corridors” and downright military options being fallen back upon time after time.  Something is certainly needed, but all evidence and sense says that it needs to be Syrian-based and mobilised if it is to have a chance.  It must be supported by the outside players, certainly, but they cannot impose it.  The armed intervention option is being driven really only by the lack of alternatives.  Perhaps what is required is something like a Community Reconciliation Commission run from inside the country but with international support (rather than direction) of a sensible and pragmatic nature.  Inter-community relations are now a shadow of what they were, and if the country is to return to anything like what it was on the eve of the troubles then restoring those relations will be No. 1 on the “to do” list.

If something like this does not happen then, a year on, the future is bleak, if only because there are few if any other obvious outcomes that might alleviate misery.  Because the one thing we do know from the past year is that thousands of Syrians, who a year ago had hopes of a new order and a new prosperity, are either dead or injured as the strife continues.  The pounding of Homs and, in particular, Bab Omr is now the best but not only demonstration of what might occur should some solution not be found quickly.  Friends and colleagues are enduring all this, and there is little relief in sight.  Our thoughts remain with them.

WCBS 880′s Sophia Hall reports

Download: colvin.mp3|titles=%20Wake%20This%20Weekend%20In%20Oyster%20Bay%20For%20Slain%20Journalist%20Marie%20Colvin|artists=Sophia%20Hall

Many have called the 56-year-old from Oyster Bay a strong and incredible woman.

Colvin worked for Britain’s The Sunday Times for more than 25 years and was at the forefront of international reporting. She lost her eye from a shrapnel wound in Sri Lanka in 2001.

Her body was turned over to embassy officials in Syria last week.

Saturday and Sunday, her wake will be held at the Oyster Bay Funeral Home followed by her funeral Monday morning at St. Dominic Roman Catholic Church in Oyster Bay.

Colvin’s family want her lifelong dedication to human rights, journalism and education to continue and has set up a fund at the Long Island Community Foundation.

Donations have already been received from around the country.

If you’d like to help, please send donations to:

Marie Colvin Fund at LICF
1864 Muttontown Road
Syosset, NY 11791

For more information about the fund, visit www.licf.org.

Please share your thoughts below…

The book No Woman’s Land is available through www.newssafety.org priced £20. Proceeds will fund INSI’s safety training for women working in the media

It is well worth your reading.

Marie Colvin, 1956-2012

On the first morning, shelling began very close to us. One boom, then a second. After the third, the Syrians with us shouted, “You have to get out!” Then a fourth rocket hit. We lost Marie Colvin, the American reporter, and my friend Rémi Ochlik, a photographer. The correspondent for Le Figaro, Edith Bouvier, was badly injured, as was Paul Conroy, a British photojournalist.

William Daniels—Panos for TIME

The Syrian army targeted Bab Amr everywhere, anywhere. There was no way to get out. One night we visited families staying underground. There were 150 people in a basement with only small lights. They had some rice and a bit of water. Everyone had a family member who had been killed. We felt very bad, thinking, Please help us get out of here; we have lost our friends. But we couldn’t say that, because they had lost everything.

The Syrians who were looking after us were never outwardly scared. They were totally confident. They would prepare medicine in the middle of the room, while we were cowering behind a wall. They were not scared of anything.

Rémi’s death affected me a lot. And perhaps it will affect me even more later. His career was taking off. He had just won the World Press Photo award. He was becoming famous. I was sure he was about to work with magazines he’d dreamed of working for, like TIME. We were excited about getting to Syria. We thought we had a lot of work. I thought, O.K., we’re here, we’ve come for this, to be inside Bab Amr. There was no time to think that maybe we’d made a mistake in going there.

I really liked Rémi. I had a lot of affection for him. Perhaps because I’m older, I felt a bit like an older brother. But sometimes he was the one advising me, especially when we were in dangerous situations. And he just disappeared, so quickly.

Rémi was cremated in Paris on March 6, the first anniversary of the Syrian revolution.

MORE: A Reporter’s Escape from Syria

French photographer William Daniels was on assignment for TIME in the besieged district of Bab Amr. On March 1, after nine days there, he and Edith Bouvier managed to safely cross the border into Lebanon.

Veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin in 2007. Photo from Getty.

I was struck by the story on Feb. 22 that American war correspondent Marie Colvin, along with her French  photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, were killed while attempting to flee from an unofficial media building that was being shelled by the Syrian Army.

Colvin, 56, was reporting for The Sunday Times from the western city of Homs on the uprising in violence by the Syrian government upon its civilian population.

I’m not particularly familiar with Colvin’s work, but something about her death stayed with me past the general morbid curiosity surrounding what happens to people placed in a war zone with only a pen to defend themselves.

I too am guilty of being desensitized to the deaths of those working in hostile destinations overseas. While I appreciate their sacrifices, there is such a high level of tragic violence every day in America and abroad, that unfortunate incidences like Ms. Colvin’s demise are met with a, ”Wow, that’s awful,” and then I move on with my day.

Yet here I am two weeks later still pondering Marie Colvin. I keep thinking about the specifics of how she died; the harrowing path Colvin traveled to get into Syria; that she doubled down by returning after having exited the country safely; and balancing all that with how desperately the Syrian people needed journalists like Colvin to get the word out about what was truly happening there.

War correspondents, like the soldiers they cover, put themselves in harm’s way. It’s not shocking that fatalities befall those in this chosen career path.

Much like doctors and medics servicing the injured on the field of battle – proximity to the action is required to do their job well, and every so often the enemy disregards that red cross before shooting.

War correspondents aren’t issued weapons with their iPads, but often there is some sense of a buffer, like the Green Zone in Iraq, where coverage of a conflict may be recorded with a modimum of safety.

The problem for Colvin and all the correspondents in Syria is the government issued orders to aim at the proverbial “red cross” on the backs of all journalists.

Syria’s internal violence stems from a wider wave of revolutionary upheaval going on in the Arab nations of the Middle East, referred to as the “Arab Spring.” This awakening began in December 2010, and consists of demonstrations and protests, that in Syria’s case pertain to demands for the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, the overthrow of his government, and an end to nearly five decades of Ba’ath Party rule.

The Syrian army was deployed to quell the uprisings and has laid siege to several cities. The government spun a story that they were only attacking armed gangs, but the statistics show a different tale.

According to the U.N. and other sources, deaths range between 7,500 to 11,000, primarily of protesters, with over 400 children having died. Reports are circulating from witnesses that soldiers in the Syrian army refusing to open fire on civilians are being summarily executed. Tens of thousands have been imprisoned, and an estimated 1,000 prisoners, including children, have died from torture after being arrested.

Colvin set the scene in a phone interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN only hours before she was killed, where she reported from a neighborhood in the city of Homs that every civilian house on the street had been hit and that no military targets were near. Colvin added that the city was under constant shelling, and the idea that the Syrian army was only going after terrorist was a lie.

On the telecast there was riveting video of a two-year-old baby that had been killed in an attack on another home and Colvin had witnessed the child die.

[Watch Marie Colvin's last report.]

I was left with this chilling quote: “It’s a complete and utter lie they’re only going after terrorists. The Syrian Army is simply shelling a city of cold, starving civilians,” Colvin said.

Why countries and governments feel the need to bully their people is anyone’s guess. In this instance we know the Syrian government didn’t want the world to see what it was doing because it banned western journalists.

We’re not talking about a country defending itself from outside attacks or even internal terrorism. These are citizens who are unhappy with their government and want the right to change it.

They hunger for democracy.

Instead of holding an election and risk losing, the Syrian government is slaughtering its citizens, an act so cold and cowardly that it demands attention from outside nations.

This is what Marie Colvin brought to the table.

Do or die situations in a hostile foreign country – when everyone else is running away, Marie Colvin was running back into the mortar fire to tell the story.

“I entered Homs on a smugglers’ route, which I promised not to reveal, climbing over walls in the dark and slipping into muddy trenches,” Colvin wrote in an article published by The Sunday Times on Feb. 19.

She knew the dangers.

Colvin’s colleague, Jean-Pierre Perrin, with the Paris-based Liberation newspaper, had been with Colvin the week before in Homs and told London’s Telegraph that the Syrian Army issued orders to kill any journalist that set foot on Syrian soil.

“A few days ago we were advised to leave the city urgently and told: ‘If they find you they will kill you,’” said Perrin. “I then left the city with the journalist from The Sunday Times but then she wanted to go back when she saw that the major offensive had not yet taken place.”

Prior to her death, Colvin appeared via satellite phone on several international programs including BBC and CNN, to describe the merciless and indiscriminate shelling and sniper attacks against civilian buildings and people on the streets of Homs by forces under the control of Bashar al-Assad.

At first it was believed the two journalists were killed by similar shelling on the makeshift media center where they sought shelter during the Homs battle.

It has since been learned through communication between Syrian Army officers, intercepted by Lebanese intelligence staff, that direct orders were issued to target the media center in which Colvin had been broadcasting, using the satellite phone signal to pinpoint her location.

If the journalists were successfully killed, then the Syrians were told to make it look as if they had died accidentally in a firefight with terrorists, radio traffic revealed.

Colvin was known for her eye-patch, which she wore after losing sight in her left eye from a rocket-propelled grenade attack while reporting on the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2001.

“Marie had fearlessly covered wars across the Middle East and south Asia for 25 years for The Sunday Times,” said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman and owner of The Sunday Times in a prepared statement. “She put her life in danger on many occasions because she was driven by a determination that the misdeeds of tyrants and the suffering of the victims did not go unreported.”

The commitment by Colvin to a calling that neither guaranteed riches nor a favorable result is unique. This type of selfless leadership is absent in our current charged political climate, where nothing gets done without some ulterior agenda.

Colvin took matters into her own hands and left the political conjecture behind to source her own facts of injustice and allow the public to decide.

This was no tired sports cliché about how tough the battle would be in the trenches. She literally placed her life on the line for what she believed to be important, and to tell the story of those who were being needlessly slaughtered when no one else would do the job.

As I read more about Marie Colvin I consciously felt the void left behind by this amazing person, and couldn’t help but feel the world was a lesser place without her in it.

Thank you for what you did. Rest now and let others try to pick up where you left off.

The-56-year-old from Oyster Bay was killed last month along with a French photographer while covering the violence in the Syrian city of Homs.

Her body was turned over to embassy officials in Syria on Saturday.

Colvin worked for Britain’s The Sunday Times for more than 25 years and was at the forefront of international reporting. She lost her eye from a shrapnel wound in Sri Lanka in 2001.

There’s a wake for her at an Oyster Bay funeral home on Saturday and Sunday. Her funeral will be Monday morning at St. Dominic Roman Catholic Church in Oyster Bay.

Please share your thoughts below…

Marie Colvin funeral to be held in New York this weekend – Journalism.co.uk

The funeral of Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin, who was killed covering the uprising in Syria, will take place in New York this weekend.

Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik died on 22 February while trapped inside the besieged city of Homs. Her body is currently en route to the USA.

According to Associated Press, a wake will be held on Saturday and Sunday and a funeral mass celebrated on Monday at 11am. 

It doesn’t help that Google is washed out with recent stories. But then the media hasn’t exactly been forthcoming with a fully picture. So in their absence, here’s what a simple lunchtime search discovered.

For a start, you can find his freelance website here. It’s called ReflexTV. Not to be confused by the Belgium operation of the same name.

On which we can find his confirmation that from between 1980-1987 he was in the United Kingdom Armed Forces, specifically the Royal Artllery where he worked as a target acquisition/Communications operative.

So this places his date of birth as on or before 1964. In 1980 it was possible for 16 year old’s to join the army with their parents permission. However, he could NOT be younger. Making him at LEAST 48 years old. My guess would be around 50. Clearly from his accent, he is from the Liverpool / Merseyside area. Where is never mentioned, although the Liverpool Echo calls him “Liverpool born” (which covers a few areas).

He’s married and I’m suggesting his wife is a similar age, given his time in the Armed Forces and his current work, I suspect they met and married in the early to mid 1980′s. But again, there is hardly any information on this, so it’s pure speculation.

From his company bio 

Paul Conroy is a seasoned freelance photographer/cameraman/editor with extensive experience in hostile environments. A broad range of experience in broadcast genres from documentary, current affairs to combat reporting.

Shortlisted for the 2011 ‘PRIX BAYEUX’ TV report along with Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times

Technically competent on all major camera and editing systems but specialised in HDV director/cameraman roles. Extensive network of connections in the Middle East, the Balkans, central Africa and Libya

Incidentally, Marie Colvin is the journalist (made famous by her eye patch) who, according to Conroy, was killed during the shelling that injured his left leg.

I took a look down Paul Conroy’s resume and came across a couple of interesting items.

Between 1995 and 1998 he was head of video production for “Advanced Acoustic Armaments“.

Sounds bad right? Well, maybe not. Because while it has a somewhat creepy name, it actually turns out to be the creation of KLF member Jim Cauty. Who bought an ex-military armored vehicle, strapped a very large PA system to it and went to various protests and festivals in order to have Tony Thorpe played records from the “DJ” turret.

If you want to know what Paul Conroy looked like back then, here he is on the actual website. Incidentally, the police took something of a dim view of the “Advanced Acoustic Armaments” vehicle and appear to have raided the whole operation. Although it appears Conroy wasn’t charged with anything, or even detained.

Before that job Conroy was actually working on the sound side of things. I guess he preferred the visual aspects more.

After his brief stint as a rebel activist with an armored vehicle stink Conroy appears to have settled down more than a bit and provided freelance cameraman / directing services for both the BBC Political Documentaries Unit and Channel 4. Although I’ve been unable to confirm that with any direct credits or so forth.

One thing I can clear up, the reason why Joss Stone appeared at his bedside for a happy photoshoot. It seems that she and Conroy go back to 2005. He has been her personal photographer and head of video.

In March 2011 he was in Libya reporting on Arab Spring for Ras Lanouf / BregaFreeland / Reuters.

April he was a cameraman for Sky TV “SOS Lampedusa”

From April to June 2011 he was with Marie Colvin working in Misrata as a photographer for Sunday Times.

From August to September 2011 her was covering the takeing of Zarwiya and the liberation of Tripoli, again for Sunday Times.

By October he was shooting “The making of Album 2″ for Dave Stewart and Joss Stone.

But back in time in Sirt for the capture and death of Gaddafi. How did he know?

Since then he traveled to Syria with Marie Colvin and… well we kind of have an idea what happened next.

So in summary

What we have here is a guy

• who started a military career and changed his mind,
• moved into acoustic work and changed his mind,
• joined an activist style group, changed his mind on that,
• then miraculasly managed to get some paying jobs in the BBC Political department and the (award winning at the time) Channel 4 news department,
• Had his Libya items covered in the Liverpool Echo (a local paper that normally covers lost cat stories)
• Then onto the Sunday Times
• Several award nominations
• Three major world events that he turns up for, two where he captures the news, one where he IS the news
• Plus Joss Stone

What’s not to understand….

I’m absolutely sure, this is not the last we’ll here from him.

Uprising: A funeral is held for a protestor in the north-west city of Idlib Picture: Reuters

The prime minister said Britain would make a fresh push for a  UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to violence and warned of a ‘day of reckoning’ for those responsible.

The resolution would also call for access to the Baba Amr district of the western city of Homs, scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in the uprising.

‘The history of Homs is being written in the blood of its citizens,’ Mr Cameron told MPs yesterday.

He had spoken to photographer Paul Conroy , injured in the attack that killed journalist Marie Colvin in Homs, who ‘described vividly the barbarity he had witnessed in that city’. Britain has provided an extra £2million to help deliver emergency aid to more than 20,000 people.

‘The longer access is denied, the more the world will believe that the Syrian regime is determined to cover up the extent of the horror that it has brought to bear on Baba Amr,’ Mr Cameron added.

Meanwhile, more than 2,000  Syrian refugees have fled across the border to Lebanon since Sunday.

Hassana Abu Firas, who left  the town of al-Qusair, about 22km (14 miles) from the border, said: ‘We fled the shelling and the strikes.’

UN humanitarian affairs chief Valerie Amos said Syria had agreed to allow her entry to the country from tomorrow until Friday.

In Newsweek Magazine

Symbols and Strength: Women in the World

Author

Tina Brown

When Hillary Clinton travels around the world as secretary of state, she is a global celebrity of the first rank. But that’s not how she felt when she went to Burma for the first time in 2011 to meet with the heroic Aung San Suu Kyi. One of the greatest living human-rights campaigners, Suu Kyi had chosen to endure—for the sake of the Burmese people—the daily threat of death and 15 years of house arrest, cut off from her husband and children. “It was, ‘Oh, my God, I cannot believe I am with Aung San Suu Kyi,” Ambassador Melanne Verveer told me of Clinton’s emotion on her two-hour talk with Suu Kyi in the house of her long captivity.

 

 
Read more>>>>