Killed in the line of duty: From Danish Siddiqui to Marie Colvin, a look back at when journalists lost their lives in conflict zones

Two Fox News journalists – a veteran videographer and a 24-year-old Ukrainian journalist – were killed on Monday during the ongoing military assault on Ukraine by Russia.

The vehicle of the two journalists, Pierre Zakrzewski and Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, came under fire outside of Kyiv. Another Fox News reporter, Benjamin Hall, was also in the vehicle. He remains hospitalised.

“Today is a heartbreaking day for Fox News Media and for all journalists risking their lives to deliver the news,” the network’s CEO, Suzanne Scott. said in a staff memo.

On Sunday, documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud, another veteran of covering war zones, died when Russian forces opened fire on his vehicle in Irpin, also outside of Kyiv.

Zakrzewski, an Irish citizen who was based in London, had covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria for Fox and won an internal “unsung hero” award for playing a key role last year in getting Fox’s freelancers and their families out of Afghanistan after the US withdrawal. He had been working in Ukraine since February.

The 24-year old journalist, Kuvshynova, was known as a local “fixer”. She helped Fox crews navigate the Kyiv area, gathered information and spoke to sources. She had a passion for music, the arts and photography, Scott said in the staff memo.

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The recent deaths of three journalists in a short span have again underscored the danger faced by media personnel who chronicle wars and conflict zones, even those with extensive experience reporting from conflict zones.

Let’s take a look at some other such incidents when journalists had to pay for covering the truth with their lives:
Danish Siddiqui

Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, working with news agency Reuters, was killed while reporting in Afghanistan’s Kandahar on 16 July, 2021.

Siddiqui was killed along with a senior Afghan officer while covering Afghan Special Forces’ attempt to retake an area from Taliban in Spin Buldak district of Kandahar.
Shah Marai and eight others

Shah Marai, an Afghan photojournalist working with Agence France-Presse, was among nine journalists killed in an Islamic State suicide bombing in Kabul in 2018.

Two suicide bombers killed 25 people, including the nine journalists who had rushed to the scene of the first attack. It was the deadliest assault on reporters since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Apart from the AFP photographer, a cameraman for the local Tolo TV station and several reporters for the Afghan branch of Radio Free Europe were among the fatalities, police said.

Afghanistan has witnessed killings of 57 journalists since 2016, according to data compiled by UNESCO.
The year 2018 recorded most deaths as 16 journalists were killed in the country. In 2016, 13 journalists were killed, followed by 11 in 2017.

In 2019 and 2020, five and six journalists respectively got killed. Most of these cases remain unresolved and perpetrators remain at large. In 2021, before Siddiqui, five journalists were killed in the country, four of them female, according to the same UNESCO count.
Rupert Hamer

On 10 January, 2010, the Sunday Mirror war correspondent and his photographer were traveling with US troops when their vehicle hit an IED near Nawa, in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Hamer died along with a US marine. His photographer, Philip Coburn, and five other Marines were severely injured.
Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik

American journalist Marie Colvin, who worked for British newspaper The Sunday Times, was killed along with French photojournalist Remi Ochlik while covering the bombardment of Homs during the Syrian civil war in February 2012.

An eye-patch on her left eye, which she had lost while covering the conflict between Sri Lankan government forces and the rebel Tamil Tigers in 2001, became sort of a trademark of Colvin through her years of covering conflict.

Colvin and Ochlik were killed in the Baba Amr area of Homs when a rocket struck the house they were using as their media centre.

Ochlik’s camera was recovered from the ruins of the rocket attack. Three of the recovered images were used in Ochlik’s posthumously published book, Revolutions.

Gerda Taro

Gerta Pohorylle, professionally known as Gerda Taro, is credited to have invented the genre of modern war photography along with partner Robert Capa.

Even though her career was brief, her work during the Spanish Civil war in 1936-37 is considered to have paved the way for women journalists in conflict zones.

While covering the Republican army retreat at the Battle of Brunete in July 1937, Taro hopped onto a car that was carrying wounded soldiers. She suffered critical wounds when a Republican tank crashed into its side. She died the following day on 26 July 1937.

Robert Capa

Born Endre Ernő Friedmann, Robert Capa is considered by some to be the greatest combat and adventure photographer in history.

Just like his partner, Gerda Taro, Capa too perished while covering a conflict zone, however, almost 20 years later.

Capa was killed while covering the First Indochina War in Thai Binh province of northern Vietnam in 1954.

On 25 May 1954, the French regiment he was accompanying was passing through an area under fire when Capa decided to leave his jeep and go up the road to photograph the advance. Capa was killed when he stepped on a landmine near the road.

Capa is often attributed to have said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.” This alleged motto can be witnessed in Capa’s photographs of the Spanish Civil war in 1936, coverage of World War II, especially on D-Day Omaha Beach in 1944.
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With inputs from agencies_

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