Marie Colvin Archives - Committee to Protect Journalists

Syrian journalist Amer Matar on facing his torturer in court

January 27, 2022 1:38 PM EST

Syrian journalist Amer Matar was regularly blindfolded, handcuffed, and beaten with cables, whips, and fists during the eight months he was held in a Syrian prison. When a German court sentenced one of his torturers – Syrian army colonel Anwar Raslan – to life in prison earlier this month, Matar finally felt that at least…

British photojournalist Paul Conroy, pictured on his way to a hospital in the U.K. in 2012, after surviving a bombing in Homs, Syria. The attack and Conroy's escape from Syria are featured in the documentary, Under the Wire. (The Sunday Times/Ray Wells)

‘We face a different danger,’ war photographer Paul Conroy says

May 22, 2019 3:47 PM EDT

In a Q&A with CPJ, British war photographer Paul Conroy discusses his last assignment with Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin in Syria, in 2012, and the dangers for photojournalists, especially when covering conflict.

A man holds a sign honoring Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin after a memorial service in London in 2012. A U.S. court ruled on January 30, 2019, that the Syrian government deliberately killed her. (Reuters/Stefan Wermuth)

US court: Syria ‘planned, executed extrajudicial killing’ of Marie Colvin

January 31, 2019 1:18 PM EST

New York, January 31, 2019–A U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., late yesterday found the Syrian government culpable in the 2012 killing of Marie Colvin, a correspondent for the U.K. newspaper Sunday Times, and ordered the government to pay US$302.5 million to her family, AFP reported today. According to the opinion, the court found that…

Journalists are trained in battlefield medicine by Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues, or RISC, in New York City. Mike Shum, left, and Holly Pickett prepare to move a training dummy simulating an injured person during a care-under-fire exercise. (AP/RISC, James Lawler Duggan)

Covering war for the first time–in Syria

April 27, 2015 11:01 AM EDT

The small room in the back of the Monsours’ house was set up for two people: two desks, two nightstands, and two beds. The beds had matching sheets and pillowcases adorned with Superman cartoon characters.

Free Syrian Army fighters are filmed as they run towards the fence of the Menagh military airport, trying to avoid snipers loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo's countryside on January 6, 2013. (Reuters/Mahmoud Hassano)

The rules of conflict reporting are changing

April 27, 2015 11:01 AM EDT

On the icy-cold morning of February 22, 2012, Marie Colvin, a 58-year-old Irish-American reporter, was killed by the blast of a rocket in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, Syria.

James Foley – a journalist’s journalist

August 21, 2014 5:22 PM EDT

Amid the tributes and war stories that followed the brutal beheading of James Foley this week, one memory from a fellow hostage shone a light on a side of his character that his audience might not have seen: his empathy not only for the people he covered but also for the journalists he encountered.

Syrian Journalists Strive to Report, Despite Shifting Dangers

February 12, 2014 1:13 AM EST

They call themselves citizen journalists, media workers, or media activists. Amid the chaos of conflict, they are determined to gather and distribute the news. By María Salazar-Ferro Journalists Bryn Karcha, center, of Canada, and Toshifumi Fujimoto, right, of Japan, run for cover with an unidentified fixer in Aleppo’s district of Salaheddine on December 29, 2012.…

El Mundo correspondent Javier Espinosa, left, and freelance photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova. (AFP/El Mundo/Family Handout)

Two Spanish journalists abducted in Syria

December 10, 2013 9:06 AM EST

New York, December 10, 2013–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the immediate release of two Spanish journalists who were abducted in Syria almost three months ago. Javier Espinosa and Ricardo Garcia Vilanova have been held captive by the Al-Qaeda affiliate Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) since September 16, the families of the…

An undated photo of Olivier Voisin. (AFP)

French photographer killed in Syria’s Idlib province

February 25, 2013 3:18 PM EST

New York, February 25, 2013–A French freelance photographer died in a Turkish hospital on Sunday from shrapnel wounds he received while covering the unrest in Syria’s Idlib province three days earlier, according to news reports. Olivier Voisin, 38, had contributed work to several local and international publications, including Le Monde, The Guardian, and Agence France-Presse.…

Attacks on the Press: On Syria’s Front Lines, Dangers from All Sides

February 14, 2013 12:05 AM EST

A hard slog with low-life smugglers is a small price for avoiding Syrian forces. By Paul Wood