Appeal to the Sunday Times and Rupert Murdoch to celebrate the life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin by reversing decision not to take photographs from freelance war photographers working in Syria "The worst war crime zone on the planet" "You risk making the world safer for war criminals by expanding the frontiers of censorship" Marie Colvin was murdered this time last year in Syria with French photographer Remi Ochlik. An outstanding and heroic journalist Marie Colvin through her fearless reporting helped to defend civilians against the savagery and extreme brutality of modern wars. Indeed, her last report in an interview on CNN from Homs, during a particularly heartless and bloody bombardment of a defenseless civilian area by Assad’s artillery summed up her unique commitment. A bombardment in which she was also targetted and killed with her colleague in their makeshift press centre. I found that report so moving it inspired me to write the song featured on this page. Moving not only because it covered the last moments in the life of a baby wounded by shrapnel after a doctor fought a losing battle to save her life, but also for the way in which she brought home the unimaginable suffering of the civilian population, especially women and children in that doomed residential area. That report delivered a compelling sense of just how important her presense there was and the courage it must have taken for her to stay. CNN’s Anderson Copper asked her why should we show the horrific images of that baby dying? Some think it is too much? Why is it important for us to see those images? Why is it important for you to be there. Right now you are one of the only Western journalists left in Homs, our team has pulled out? After a slight pause Marie Colvin replied she had a “discussion with your people Anderson” implying she had to argue to have those images shown(?) She then went on: “..I feel very strongly that they should be shown, something like that I think is actually stronger ...for someone that is not here, for an audience that is not familiar with the conflcit, any conflict is far away, but that is the reality. These are 28,000 civilians: men, women and children hiding, being shelled, defenseless. That little baby ....probably will move more people to think what is going on and why is no one stopping the murder that is happening in Homs everyday.” Cooper then asked her about the Assad’s government contention that they were fighting terrorists in Homs? There is no war? There is no armed conflict inside Syria that the army is just going after terrorist gangs? Eye witness Marie Colvin replied: “Every civilian house on this street has been hit. You are talking about a kind of poor popular neighbourhood. The top floor of the building I am in has been hit. Em in fact totally destroyed. There are no military targets here. There is the Free Syrian Army, heavily outnumbered and outgunned. They have only Kalashnikovs and rocket propelled grenades. But they dont have a base. There are more young men being killed, we see alot of teenage young men, but they are only going out to help get the wounded some kind of medical treatment. So its just a complete and utter lie to say they are only going after terrorists. There are rockets, tank shells...aircraft firing in parallel lines, the Syrian army is simply shelling a city of cold, starving civilans.” Marie Colvin believed reports from Homs were important. A major network was covering a war crime in progress because she was there. Against that background it beggars belief that the first anniversary of her murder would be marked by the Sunday Times telling freelance photographers they will not take their pictures from Syria because they do not want to be accused of encouraging them to take risks. Given the courage that Marie Colvin showed in the field that initiative surely represents a betrayal of everything she stood for, and risked her life in the service of that newspaper to uphold. The Sunday Times, and Rupert Murdoch, surely need to reflect on the morality of allowing her death to even appear to be used to justify censorship. After all, she took amazing risks to help cast a spot light on war zones, which today invariably mean war crime zones, and while it is always hard to say how many lives her presense and those of her courageous fellow reporters might have saved, there is no denying their incredible value on the ground. Every time I hear phrases like “cannot be independently confirmed or verified” from Syria, I am reminded of the difference Marie Colvin made. Citizen journalists are dying, being imprisoned and tortured to produce heroic reports, the credibility of which is dismissed, whenever they are shown by that kind of admittedly morally suspect terminology. Nonetheless, it is true that if newspapers like the Sunday Times do not publish the incredible photographs taken by freelance photographers, it is unwittingly taking part in a process of censorship that like it not is precisely what Marie Colvin gave her life to resist. Rick Findler a freelance war photographer was in Syria in January and he sent pictures to the Sunday Times who told him they were "exceptional". However, he was also told they could not use the pictures because of their policy of not encouraging photographers to take risks in going to Syria. "You can see where they are coming from, because it was so terrible when Marie was killed. They don't want people to take the risk. "But on the other hand, what ever happened to praising the bravery of photographers, and people who are willing to risk their lives to take pictures? What better way to honour Marie's death than to promote the others who are going there?" (HuffPost - see link) Michael Foley a brothers of AFP video journalist Jim Foley, kidnapped in Northern Syria last November and still missing agrees:"Conflict reporters don't do this for money. Weeks can go by with a lot of travel at your own expense. "It is censorship to some degree, they are turning their back on information which they should be showing to the world, because of their liability, moral or otherwise. He continued: "The outlets that Jim worked for, Global Post and AFP, don't share that view. They have stood up for him to a degree I never could have imagined, they are working round the clock for him, as if he were a staff reporter. " (HuffPost - see link) The Sunday Times has a unique responsibility to show leadership on this issue because of Marie Colvin murder in the line of duty, and the years of incredible service she gave that newspaper and of course all of us, in bearing witness on our behalf in so many of the most dangerous war zones over the last several years. If silence is complicity in the face of crimes against humanity, then rejecting outstanding photographs from some of the most distinguished war photographers around, wittingly or unwittingly, is not just a “kind of censorship” it is utterly indefensible when they shine a light on the worst war crime zone in the world. The launch of the campaign A Day Without News on the anniversary of the murder of Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik to try to stop the deliberate and increasing targeting and murder of journalists in war zones is clearly welcome. However, it is indefensible to unwittingly make the world safer for war criminals by aiding their censorship efforts and makes it easier for them to impose their brutality and savagery on vulnerable of civilians especially women and children. Far from refusing photographs from some of the world’s best and bravest photographers, the Sunday Times should be following the example of AFP and the Global Post commended by Michael Foley above. Surely a far better way to celebrate the life of the paper’s greatest modern war correspondent than expanding the frontiers of censorship in the worst war crime zone on the planet? Ronan L Tynan 22 February, 2013