In the aftermath of the death of Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin, along with photographer Remi Ochlik, whilst reporting on the conflict in Syria, former war reporter Michael Nicholson tells us what drives these brave men and women
Marie once asked herself the number one question; ‘Is the level of risk worth the story? What is bravery? What is bravado?’
She asked it on behalf of every correspondent and cameraman or woman who has ever gone to war. What is it that encourages us so compulsively and repeatedly to put our lives on the line? Is it simply, crudely, machismo? Fact is, you have no choice. Having done it once, you have to do it again and few of us would deny that the chase becomes an end in itself. Just as long as your luck is running.
War reporters travel from conflict to conflict, from one human misery to another and, with the TV cameramen and photographers who are our brave companions, we suffer from an overdose of everything. The world's woes are perverse and self-inflicted and in time we become saturated with them.
Yet we all share a common purpose. That what we write, what we report, the power of our television images and our photographs, might somehow change the world for the better. That it might even end war. But how often do we wonder if all we are doing is simply to advertise all the evils of this world and little, if anything, to end them?
If Marie had any such doubts she never voiced them. In her long career, she knew there was only one place to be. Up front, where it is all happening.
She spoke for us all when she said ‘Whatever the dangers, our common mission is to report the horrors with accuracy and without prejudice’.
She did that again and again and, as so many do, she paid the price.