NEAL CONAN, HOST:
Forgive us if we hold a special place for the reporters who go into harm's way to tell the stories of civilians and soldiers caught in the horrors of combat. All of them are grown-ups and know the risks. The loss of their lives is no more or less tragic than the death of a doctor or a teacher or a grocer, but we would never learn what happened to those others if the reporters didn't take the cameras and notebooks and risk their lives to tell us the story.
Last week, the great reporter Anthony Shadid died of asthma inside Syria, on assignment for The New York Times. We spoke with him often, from Baghdad, and more recently Beirut. Today, news that Marie Colvin was killed by shell fire in the city of Homs. French photographer Remi Ochlik died beside her. Two other French journalists were injured. Fifty-six years old, originally from Long Island, for the past 25 years, a correspondent for the Sunday Times of London. We spoke with her last at the height of the battle in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata last April.
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CONAN: Marie Colvin, reporting from the siege of Misrata in Libya last year. The reporter died earlier today covering the siege of Homs in Syria.
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CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan, in Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.