Libya
Foreign journalists killedPosted Apr 27 2011
Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were killed by a mortar shell in western Libya on April 20. Michael Brown, of the Corbis Agency, and British freelancer Guy Martin were also injured.
“All four were on Tripoli Street, the main raid through Misrata, which was the scene of the fiercest fighting in an offensive by troops loyal to Col. Muammar Gaddafi,” according to Reporters Without Borders. “This tragedy has yet again highlighted the dangers that journalists run when they cover wars. Their deaths bring the number of journalists killed in Libya since the start of the fighting to four.”
Hetherington, a British photojournalist for Vanity Fair, was best known for his full-length documentaries, according to Reporters Without Borders. He helped make the films Liberia: an Uncivil War (2004) and The Devil Came of Horseback (2007). Another film he worked on, Restrepo, was nominated for an Ocsar in 2010 and won the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. He had also won international prizes for his images of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Dino Mahtani, a guest blogger for the Committee to Protect Journalists and friend of Hetherinton’s, wrote that “everybody who knows Tim will tell you this. He was a rare creature of genuine intellect, curiosity, and dedication to his subject material … He constantly struggled to peel back the layers of information to gain new understanding and a fresh way of approaching the story with his lens.”
Hondros was a U.S. photojournalist for Getty Images and died a few hours later from head injuries, according to Reporters Without Borders. Hondros “had covered most of the leading conflicts since the 1900s including Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Kashmir, West Bank, Iraq and Liberia,” Reporters Without Borders said. He had also won many international photojournalism prizes.
CPJ reported that Hondros “captured humanity at its worst and its best, in times of war and despair and at moments of kindness and hope.”
Two other journalists being held by Libyan authorities are in good health, CPJ reported Anton Hammerl, a South African freelance photographer who disappeared in early April, has now appeared in government custody. American freelancer Clare Morgana Gillis, who has been detained since April 5, was allowed to call home, telling her parents she is well.
American photographer James Foley and Spanish photographer Manuel Varela were arrested with Morgana Gillis, but their whereabouts are undetermined.