The Stream

#UnderTheWire: What is the legacy of Marie Colvin?

We consider the role of journalism in conflict as a documentary on the legendary war correspondent is released.

In February 2012, Sunday Times’ journalist Marie Colvin and photographer Paul Conroy crossed into Syria on the back of a motocross motorcycle, determined to cover the plight of civilians trapped in the war-battered city of Homs. For Colvin, it would be her last assignment.

 

On February 22nd – just one night after she had given powerful interviews on international television in which she railed against government shelling of a trapped and starving population – Colvin herself was killed by Syrian army artillery fire alongside French photographer Remi Ochlik. Conroy and another journalist, Edith Bouvier, were wounded but survived.

 

Cat Colvin, Marie’s sister, has said the government of Bashar al-Assad deliberately killed Marie to silence her and intimidate other journalists.

 

Colvin and Conroy’s story is now set to be told in an upcoming documentary “Under the Wire” based on Conroy’s book of the same title. On this episode of The Stream, Conroy will be joined by the film’s director, Chris Martin, and by Cat Colvin to discuss the remarkable life of Marie Colvin and the importance of bearing witness.

 

On this episode of The Stream, we speak with:

 

Chris Martin

Director, Under the Wire

 

Paul Conroy, @reflextv

Photojournalist

 

Cat Colvin

Read more: 

How U.S. journalist Marie Colvin became a martyr in Syria – Daily Beast    
How the Assad regime tracked and killed Marie Colvin for reporting on war crimes in Syria – The Intercept 

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