Bearing Witness to Truth: Reporting from War Zones

 by Eva Burkinshaw

Lindsey Hilsum and Marie Colvin

Since the start of Russia's invasion on Ukraine, I have started watching Channel 4 News, with my family, and have been really inspired by the bravery shown by the journalists trying to bring the truth about the war to us, reporting amid the bombing of cities such as Kyiv and Kharkov, two of Ukraine's largest cities. Channel 4's Lindsey Hilsum, Matt Frei and Krishnan Guru-Murthy are just three examples of the many journalists from across the world putting their lives at risk so that the rest of us can understand what is going on. 

This has led me to find out more about the dangers journalists face trying to report the truth to the rest of us. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 55 journalists were killed in 2021 and 42 in 2020. It is only March and already 12 journalists have died in Ukraine alone in 2022.

What I have found interesting is how many journalists doing some of the most important war reporting have been women. One of the greatest of all was a friend and colleague of Lindsey Hilsum, Marie Colvin, who reported from war zones in Chechnya, Kosovo, Libya and Sierra Leone, as well as Syria. She was blinded in her left eye by a grenade-blast in Sri Lanka in 2001, which led to her wearing an eye patch, which helped turn her into an icon. Colvin was killed by a bomb, in 2012, while reporting from the siege of Homs, during the war in Syria. Colvin wrote that her goal was to shine a light on "humanity in extremes, pushed to the unendurable . . . My job is to bear witness.”

What is worrying is that some of the most dangerous work for journalists is reporting on corruption in their own governments. This has even happened in Europe. For example, five years ago, in 2017, in Malta, journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was killed by a car bomb outside her home while investigating links between members of the Maltese government and members of organised crime. Even now, five years later, many of those responsible have still not been brought to justice.

These courageous women were motivated by a desire to bring the truth to light and act as an example to the rest of us.