By Mike Cavender, RTDNA Executive Director

Once again, the tragic news of more journalists killed while covering a conflict in the Middle East is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by reporters, photographers and producers who risk their very lives to report from the most troubled regions of the world. 

We extend our sympathies to the families of Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik, who died in the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday when rockets fired by government forces hit the house they were staying in. 

According to a Reuters report, a witness said shells hit the home in an opposition-held district of Homs, which was being used as a center for the media.  The witness said a rocket struck them as they tried to escape the shelling.

The jobs we do—both abroad, as well as at home—can be inherently dangerous.  Those who venture into situations like the one in Homs understand the risks they face.  For Marie Colvin, it wasn’t the first time her life was in jeopardy.  She lost an eye after being hit by shrapnel while working in Sri Lanka in 2001.  She knew what danger looked like and what it felt like.  Yet she also knew what it meant to be a reporter and what it took to tell her audience the real story, the personal story.  And this week, she paid the ultimate price.  Her colleague, the French-born photographer Ochlik also knew what it meant to be in harm’s way.  Before Syria, he had documented the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
 
It’s because of journalists like Colvin and Ochlik, as well as the scores of others who have been wounded or killed in conflicts all over the world, we are better off.  We are better informed and better prepared to make the decisions that may, someday, have an influence on ending the kind of violence that not only claims such a high price for journalists but too high a price for the many others around them.