In the six short years since Marie Colvin’s death in Homs, Syria, on February 12, 2012, she has been remembered in many ways. As a member of the Frontline Club, those eulogies of Marie have often taken place here. Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Matthew Heineman (Cartel Land, City of Ghosts) chose to make her life, death and dedication to journalism the subject of his feature debut.

“For me, A Private War is a love letter to journalism and an homage to Marie, who risked her life time and time again fighting to tell hard truths. It was deeply important for me to try and also capture Marie’s personal struggle and to examine the demons that plagued her mind. I didn’t want to approach the film as a biopic, but instead, an exploration of the paradoxical swirl of addictions that made Marie brilliant, but also increasingly tortured. She often struggled with the very thing that drove her – Will the world care when her words finally reach them?” – Mathew Heineman

Join us for an exclusive pre-screening of ‘A Private War’ on Tuesday February 5th, 10 days before the film’s UK release. We’re partnering with Women in Journalism for a Q&A afterwards with Matthew Heinemann and Paul Conroy, chaired by Editorial Director of the Sunday Times Eleanor Mills.

Run time: 110 minutes

Watch the trailer here

Eleanor Mills is Editorial Director of The Sunday Times and Editor of The Sunday Times Magazine which was named Supplement of the Year at the prestigious 2018 British Press Awards. A passionate advocate of equality and keen feminist, Eleanor is Chair of Women in Journalism, the UK’s premier network for female journalists across print, radio, TV and online, Her publications include: Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs: 100 Years of the Best Journalism by Women, which is on the A level syllabus. She is on the board of the New York based Centre for Talent Innovation think tank and is a trustee of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund  (JDRF). She appears regularly on TV and radio and lives in London with her husband and two daughters.

Paul Conroy is a former soldier who spent seven years with the Royal Artillery. He developed a passion for photography and first became involved in journalism on a mission to the Balkans. He has since worked extensively as a photojournalist and filmmaker in combat zones around the world, producing footage in the Balkans, Iraq, Democratic Republic Congo, Rwanda and most notably Libya and Syria. Paul first met Marie in March 2003 in Syria. A firm friendship was forged over their many shared interests: sailing, whiskey, and their extraordinary dedication to covering the atrocities of war. Having worked together in Libya in 2011, they were determined to cover the Syrian regime’s brutal crackdown and the devastating impact this was having on civilians.

Matthew Heineman is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who has twice won the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Award from the Directors Guild of America, one of only three directors to win the prestigious honour twice. Heineman recently directed and executive produced ‘The Trade’, a five-part docu-series that premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The critically acclaimed series chronicles the opioid crisis through the eyes of those most affected-growers, cartel members, users and law enforcement. His last film ‘City of Ghosts’ that follows a group of citizen-journalists exposing the horrors of ISIS premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

  Watch the video stream of ‘A Private War’ Exclusive Q&A

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2tbjpANfW8

‘It has always seemed to me that what I write is about humanity in extremis, pushed to the unendurable, and that it is important to tell people what really happens in wars.’ Marie Colvin, 2001

Biographer Lindsey Hilsum will be joined by Henry Porter to discuss the life and work of Marie Colvin, one of the world’s most experienced foreign correspondents of our time.

Marie Colvin was glamorous, hard-drinking, braver than the boys, with a troubled and rackety personal life. With fierce compassion and honesty, she reported from the most dangerous places in the world, fractured by conflict and genocide, going in further and staying longer than anyone else.

In Sri Lanka in 2001, Marie was hit by a grenade and lost the sight in her left eye – resulting in her trademark eye patch – and in 2012 she was killed in Syria. Like her hero, the legendary reporter Martha Gellhorn, she sought to bear witness to the horrifying truths of war, to write ‘the first draft of history’ and crucially to shine a light on the suffering of ordinary people.

Written by fellow foreign correspondent Lindsey Hilsum, this is the story of the most daring war reporter of her generation. Drawing on unpublished diaries and notebooks, and interviews with Marie’s friends, family and colleagues, In Extremis is the story of our turbulent age, and the life of a woman who defied convention.

Lindsey Hilsum  is Channel 4 News International Editor, and has covered many of the conflicts of recent years including in Syria, Ukraine and the Arab Spring – sometimes alongside Marie Colvin. She was in Baghdad for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, and in Belgrade for the 1999 NATO bombing. In 1994, she was the only English-speaking correspondent in Rwanda when the genocide began. She has won awards from the Royal Television Society and BAFTA amongst others. Her last book, Sandstorm; Libya in the Time of Revolution, was described by the Observer as “an account with historical depth to match dramatic reportage.”

Henry Porter is a novelist and former commentator for the Observer. He is a winner of the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award –  for Brandenburg, his novel about  the Fall of the Berlin wall,  which he covered in 1989. His latest book, Firefly, is the story of young boy on the migrant route in 2015 and is the first part of a trilogy set in the turbulent world of US and European politics. He was a friend of Marie’s and sat opposite her when they worked at the Sunday Times in the eighties. This was at a time when she was regularly picking up the phone to   Yasser Arafat and Muammar Gaddafi.

Run Time: 1 hr 35 mins

Chair

Lindsey Hilsum is Channel 4 News’ International Editor. Her biography, “In Extremis; the Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin” will be published in November. She has covered many of the conflicts of recent times, including Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan. She has also reported on the Trump administration, terror attacks in Europe and refugees, and was Channel 4 News China Correspondent from 2006 to 2008. During the 2004 US assault on Falluja, she was embedded with a frontline marine unit, and in 1994, was the only English-speaking foreign correspondent in Rwanda when the genocide started. She has won awards from the Royal Television Society and BAFTA, aswell as the Charles Wheeler Award and the James Cameron Award, and was the recipient of the 2017 Patron’s Medal from the Royal Geographical Society.  Her writing has been featured in the New York Review of Books,  Granta, the Sunday Times and the Guardian among other publications. Her first book was ‘Sandstorm; Libya in the Time of Revolution’.  Before becoming a journalist, she was an aid worker, initially with OXFAM in Latin America and then with UNICEF in Africa.

Speakers

Scott Gilmore is Staff Attorney at the Center for Justice and Accountability. He is an expert in strategic litigation on behalf of victims of international crimes in national courts, including cases involving genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, universal jurisdiction and foreign sovereign immunity. For the past six years, Mr Gilmore has investigated war crimes and torture in Syria and filed the first-ever war crimes case against the Assad regime for the targeted killing of American journalist Marie Colvin. He has investigated crimes committed against Yezidi, an ethno-religious minority targeted by ISIS, for potential prosecution of Duvalier-era officials in Haiti, and pioneered litigation strategies to challenge cyber-surveillance targeting journalists and human rights defenders. He has a BA from McGill University, a JD from George Washington University Law School (high honours, Order of the Coif), and certification in international human rights and humanitarian law from Oxford University. He was formerly a professional musician in the Indie rock bands A Silver Mt. Zion and Black Ox Orkestar, and a theatre performer in Le Petit Théâtre de l’Absolu.

Paul Conroy is a former soldier who spent seven years with the Royal Artillery. He developed a passion for photography and first became involved in journalism on a mission to the Balkans. He has since worked extensively as both a photojournalist and filmmaker in combat zones around the world, producing footage from conflicts in the Balkans, Iraq, Democratic Republic Congo, Rwanda and most notably Libya and Syria. Paul first met Marie Colvin in March 2003 in Syria. He was attempting to smuggle himself across the Tigris on a raft made of tubes stolen from lorries, with the aim to get into Iraq to cover the final assault on Baghdad. A firm friendship was forged over their many shared interests: sailing, whiskey, and their extraordinary dedication to covering the atrocities of war. Having worked together in Libya in 2011, they were a natural pairing for an assignment to Homs. They were determined to cover the Syrian regime’s brutal crackdown and the devastating impact this was having on civilians. Conroy is the author of Under The Wire. Offering a testimony of war reportage, and a personal account of the final assignment he embarked on with Marie Colvin.

Cat Colvin is Marie’s sister. She and her three children filed a lawsuit against Syria in 2016 in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., alleging that Marie was targeted and killed by the Syrian regime. Cat is the founder of the Marie Colvin Fund, which supports charitable organisation that reflect Marie’s life-long dedication to humanitarian aid, human rights, journalism and education. The fund’s primary donation recipient is the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting at Stony Brook University of Journalism, where Cat serves as a founding Board Member. The mission of the Marie Colvin Centre is to nurture and grow the next generation of overseas reporters, to cement Marie’s legacy by rewarding tenacious overseas reporting with a journalist-in-residence fellowship, and to raise awareness about the need for robust international coverage through the Marie Colvin Distinguished Lecture Series, which has welcomed Christiane Amanpour, Clarissa Ward, Ann Curry, Rukmini Callimachi and Lindsey Hilsum. Cat currently serves as General Counsel and Senior Vice President of a large US-based multinational corporation, where she is responsible for all aspects of legal and regulatory affairs, and architect of her company’s Charitable Giving Programme, which promotes active participation by more than 10,000 employees worldwide in STEM education, humanitarian and environmental causes. After graduating from Yale Unversity, Cat started her career as Programme Director for the Executive Council on Foreign Diplomats, then spent several years working as a professor of Rural Development for United World Colleges at FUNDACEA in Barinas, Venezuela. Cat is a graduate of Fordham University of Law and began her legal career as an associate of International Project Finance at Shearman & Sterling in New York, the law firm that currently represents her in the Colvin v. Syria lawsuit, along with the Center for Justice and accountability. She subsequently worked as a foreign Legal Consultant for Baker & McKenzie in Santiago, Chile, and in house Corporate Counsel for the Independent Film Channel in New York.

Chris Martin is an award-winning director he has made films for all the major UK and US networks as well as a number of feature documentaries (Palestine is still the Issue, War on Democracy)

On Tuesday 1st November, in an event organised in partnership with the London Press Club and Index on Censorship, six journalists met at the Frontline Club to redefine Foreign Correspondence.

“Where once we were seen as neutral observers, now we are targets” said Caroline Lees, author of Index’s recent article ‘Under The Wires’. Backed up by a deterioration in journalistic safety and evidence supplied by Assad defectors, it is clear that journalists are now firmly in the military’s crosshairs.

Freelance photojournalist Paul Conroy attributed this to the rise of the use of truth “as a weapon of war”. Kim Sengupta, Defence Correspondent at The Independent noted that the use of kidnapping and public beheading by rebel groups has led to “a huge tranche of Northern Syria not being covered”.

However, this tactic of limiting press freedom through violence is not limited to terrorist organisations.

Conroy is in a court case against the Assad regime after documents smuggled out of Syria proved that he and his colleague Marie Colvin were a victim of an assassination operation. These documents state that “international journalists were to be treated the same as combatants”.

The rise of untrained freelance journalists in the field worsens the problem. Freelancer Samira Shackle mentioned that she had come across numerous “horror stories” of young journalists arriving in hostile zones without even basic precautions. She cited the dangers of young reporters travelling without insurance or basic cyber security.

The problem is exacerbated by the increased role of ‘fixers’. As local employees who offer on the ground support to the international press, these freelancers run many of the same risks as Western journalists but with little of the support. They also must cope with increased hostilities and accusations of being a spy or traitor.

They are also often left out in the cold when it comes to kidnap or imprisonment.

Caroline Lees mentioned the case of Jovo Martinović, the Montenegrin investigative journalist arrested whilst researching a gun running story. Despite the dubious charges, the French station he was working for has done little to help him.

Dr Haider Al Safi formerly of The Independent, said that in many cases, these employees were being exploited: “They are overworked, not getting paid well and also not introduced to their rights”.

There was consensus on how the journalistic world could respond. This included major organisations taking more care in training all it’s employees. Some attempts have been made towards this end.

However, Lees mentioned sources from news organisations who said they didn’t support fixers because it was “too complicated, too expensive and they don’t want to accept liability”. With statements like this it is clear a sea change across journalism is a long way off.

Photojournalist and filmmaker Paul Conroy joined Channel 4 News’ international editor Lindsey Hilsum at the Frontline Club on 6 June, to give a personal account of his experiences in Syria, detailed in his new book Under the wire: Marie Colvin’s Final Assignment.

Encouraged by his friends, Conroy wrote the book as he recovered from serious injuries suffered while reporting the siege of Homs in February 2012.

“In a way I was bringing Marie [Colvin] back to life, revisiting everything…but all of the time that I was writing this, I knew there is going to come a day – one day – when I am going to have to write that chapter.”

Along with French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, Sunday Times foreign affairs correspondent Marie Colvin was killed, and French journalist Edith Bouvier was seriously injured when a make-shift media centre came under intense fire from government forces, in the rebel-controlled district of Baba Amr.

Lindsey Hilsum and Paul Conroy in conversation. Photo credit: Millicent Teasdale

Without a doubt, said Conroy, the media centre was a deliberate target. Reading an excerpt from his book, he described the room as:

“. . . the headquarters of a hunted and starving band of outlaws, bound together by their desire to survive . . . targets of a murderous regime. They were the media and this was their temporary home.”

Hilsum asked him about the role of a “camera as shield”. While fighting his way out of the city and after field surgery to his injured leg, he continued to film footage of his fellow wounded:

“I had a flip cam; all my other cameras had been blown up. I felt a bit useless . . . but I thought I might be able to get something out of what’s happened.”

He added that during the attack his laptop was demolished and few images from his camera were recovered after it was found and returned. Conroy then explained how he escaped through a secret tunnel with the help of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Commentators have subsequently expressed opinions that this help has made his views biased in favour of the rebel group. On this, Conroy said:

“Anyone who says I was a cheerleader for the FSA has got to suck it up really – they saved my life. I actually saw, because of those guys, what was happening.”

“That is why we went, that is why Marie died, that is why Remi died . . . Syrian activists who stood on rooftops and were blown to pieces . . . and everyone else who has died out there, and suffered and been maimed and wounded. There is no reason the world shouldn’t know this.”

With the death toll now estimated at 80,000 by the UN, there is little hope of a conclusive resolution anytime soon. The Syrian conflict threatens to destabilise the region further, against a backdrop of cynicism towards diplomatic efforts.

Audience members asked about the implications of a lack of international support, which may have caused more radical groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra (JAN) to gain power. It is a reflection of how much the situation has changed since his time in Baba Amr, Conroy said, when the lone “jihadist” who showed up was kidnapped and escorted to Lebanon by the FSA.

Now, JAN has become a “definite presence” in the country:

“The Jihadists are a powerful fighting force and if you look at the situation, for years now Syrians have sat there and nobody has lifted a finger.”

Conroy has worked in combat zones around the world – the Balkans, Iraq, Congo, Rwanda, Libya and Syria – as well as spending seven years with the Royal Artillery as a soldier. His friendship with Marie Colvin goes back to 2003, when he made an ill-fated attempt to raft himself into Iraq to cover the final assault on Baghdad. Colvin, well known for not working well with photographers, was rather impressed by his efforts and the two struck up a friendship over their shared loves of sailing and whiskey. The two worked together in Libya in 2011 before being paired to cover Homs.

In spite of this adventurous background and the risks he has taken, one of his most serious injuries came a little over a month ago in Exeter. When walking down the High Street he was hit with a projectile after walking away from an altercation with a man. He now has a titanium plate holding up part of his face.

Hilsum told the audience she was shocked at the time to get a message saying he might lose an eye.

Conroy said: “I could not honestly have worn a patch could I?”

On the same day as this event, the Frontline Club published its white paper, Newsgathering Safety and the Welfare of Freelancers.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/newsreview/features/article1267580.ece

You can watch the event or listen to the podcast below:

https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/in-conversation-with-paul

Paul Conroy first met Marie Colvin in March 2003 in Syria. He was attempting to smuggle himself across the Tigris on a raft made of tubes stolen from lorries, with the aim to get into Iraq to cover the final assault on Baghdad. A firm friendship was forged over their many shared interests: sailing, whiskey, and their extraordinary dedication to covering the atrocities of war.

Having worked together in Libya in 2011, they were a natural pairing for an assignment to Homs. They were determined to cover the Syrian regime’s brutal crackdown and the devastating impact this was having on civilians.

Paul Conroy will be joining us in conversation with international editor at Channel 4 News, Lindsey Hilsum, to talk about Under The Wire. Offering a testimony of war reportage, and a personal account of the final assignment he embarked on with Marie Colvin, one of the foremost journalists of our generation.

Paul Conroy is a former soldier who spent seven years with the Royal Artillery. He developed a passion for photography and first became involved in journalism on a mission to the Balkans. He has since worked extensively as both a photojournalist and filmmaker in combat zones around the world, producing footage from conflicts in the Balkans, Iraq, Democratic Republic Congo, Rwanda and most notably Libya and Syria.

Colvin and Ochlik died the day after Syrian activist, Rami al-Sayed. His video footage, uploaded to YouTube and Bambuser, was used by the world’s media to report what was happening in Homs.

It is a sad day for journalism – "old", "new" and what they have become together.  

In Colvin’s last report for the newspaper on Sunday, she had described the desperation of the brutal government assault on Homs, part of a crackdown which has claimed the lives of an estimated 5,400 Syrians since March 2011.

This is a collection of Colvin’s final broadcast interviews and tributes from the world of journalism. 

No one who attended last night’s discussion at the Frontline Club on the safety of journalists was under any illusion that the issue was not an important one, but few there could have anticipated that it would be so topical.

News of the death of Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin, a regular at the Frontline Club, and French photographer Remi Ochlik in a shelling in Homs has shocked and saddened the journalist community.

The reports of the respected journalists’ deaths came after the Committee to Protect Journalists released their annual report highlighting the risks journalists take in order to shed light in dark places.

Attacks on the Press was presented by CPJ executive director Joel Simon, alongside a panel including Colin Pereira, head of safety and security at ITN; Maziar Bahari, a journalist who was detained in Iran in 2009, and chaired by award-winning journalist Jenny Kleeman, who has been working with Channel 4’s Unreported World since 2007.

The report outlines the impact the events of 2011 had on news crews all over the world, with hundreds of journalists being imprisoned, censored, supressed and exiled around the world.

“How can you protect journalists when they are close to the action? A certain amount of risk is inevitable, but we have to embrace it. Information is important, valuable, and sometimes it is worth taking a calculated risk for,” said Simon.

It plays a pivotal role in our lives.

“You can’t control the risks – but you can control the people you send,” added Pereira. “But like any machine we get very tired. Our resources are depleted. What is becoming apparent to major broadcasters is that the real risk is not [having] foreign news crews parachuting in to countries, it’s the local journalists.”

Last night, CPJ casualty figures for 2012 stood at six. Last year, over forty journalists were killed. These figures lie in stark contrast to the two journalists killed in World War I.

The terrain journalists cover has changed. From being seen as neutral observers bearing witness to events, they are increasingly being targeted in a bid to silence unfavourable reports against governments.

The tumultuous events of 2011 has seen ‘crackdown’ become a buzzword among press freedom organisations. In Egypt, where documenting the unrest can be seen as highly damaging to the regime, journalists have reported being targeted and attacked. In Iran, threats by the government have extended to the harassment of journalists’ family members.

The panel believed one of the reasons the number of journalists killed has rocketed over the past years is because of a reigning culture of impunity.

“Governments think they can get away with kidnapping, murder and targeting,” said Bahari.

“Frontline news gatherers are increasingly local, online and freelance journalists, and are victims of violence and repression because they work without the same support that journalists with media organisations have,” said Simon.

He urged media organisations and support groups to come together to fight censorship or information and the reigning culture of impunity.

“We need to create a global coalition against censorship, a community of global citizens. [Censorship is] something I feel is an emerging threat and needs to be challenged.”

Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin remained in Syria because she was determined the terrible story of events  there had to be told.

Marie had hoped to moderate a discussion that is taking place on the growing crisis in Syria at the Frontline Club this Friday, but said in an email to programme editor Millicent Teasdale on Sunday that she had decided to stay “at the epicentre of the storm” in Baba Amr in Homs:

“They are killing with impunity. Sadly I wont be able to make 24th have decided I should stay and write what I can to expose what is happening here..”

Reports that Marie was one of two Western journalists killed in the Syrian city of Homs, when shells hit the building they were staying in, have shocked and saddened friends and colleagues at the Frontline Club.

Writing on Twitter, Channel 4 News presenter, Jon Snow, said "Assad’s assassination of Marie Colvin: Utterly devastating: the most couragious journalist I ever knew and a wonderful reporter and writer."

Last night, Marie described on Channel 4 News the "merciless" attacks on civilians surrounding her.

She said: "I think the sickening thing is the complete merciless nature. They’re hitting civilian buildings mercilessly and without caring. The scale of it is just shocking."

She also spoke on the BBC, telling viewers: “I saw a baby die today".

We’ll be discussing the situation in Iran following the disputed election results at the Frontline Club tonight. Specifically, how did hotel-bound foreign journalists report from Tehran and beyond during the election and days and weeks following? We start at 7pm GMT and as usual if you can’t join us in person please come and join us on the Frontline Club broadcast channel or on the Club events page where we will be streaming the discussion. In addition, we now partner Livestation and we will be broadcasting the event with them. To try out Livestation, which gives better quality audio and video than our usual channel and allows a greater degree of interaction, you’ll need to download the software to your PC/Mac.

Joining us will be Channel 4 News International editor Lindsey Hilsum, Behrouz Afagh, head of the Asia & Pacific Region for the BBC World Service, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer, one of the last US network journalists to leave Iran and The Times journalist Marie Colvin.