A life in the line of fire: Marie Colvin, a Sunday Times journalist, tried by a US court murdered by the Syrian government

Last month, a US federal court sentenced the Syrian government to pay more than $ 300 million for the murder of Marie Colvin, murdered alongside French photographer Remi Ochlik in Homs in 2012. His obituary is reproduced below.

In 2010, at a ceremony at St Bride's Church on Fleet Street, honoring murdered journalists in war zones, Marie Colvin Sunday Times correspondent abroad, delivered a moving address.

"We can and do make a real difference by exposing the horrors of war and in particular the atrocities committed against civilians," she said, adding, "We must always ask ourselves if the level of risk is worth it. To be told. What is bravery and bravery?

Those who worked alongside her claim that she was clearly brave but by no means reckless. But yesterday, the American journalist was added to the list of people who died for the story when she and a photographer were killed by a rocket while they were trying to escape from a house in Homs, Syria , used as a press center for rebels.

The day before, she had sent satellite telegrams to the BBC, ITN and the CNN news channel. She said, "Only shells, rockets and tank fire are flowing into the civilian areas of this city, and it is implacable." His reports were accompanied by poignant images of a baby killed in bombing raid.

She said it was important that these images be broadcast to show the world what was going on in the city. "Why does not anyone stop this murder?" She asked.

It was during her professional career that she wondered why journalists like this exposed themselves to danger in order to denounce violence, difficulties and injustice.

In 2001, she went to the Tamil-dominated Sri Lanka region – the first Western journalist to do so for six years – and lost sight of her left eye when she was touched by a shrapnel shell fired from a grenade. (Her black eye patch became her name badge.)

That same week, she wrote an article of 3,000 words for The Sunday Times describing the incident and the operation in a New York hospital to save his sight. She said that she had been mad to woo such dangers and concluded, "So, was I stupid?" Stupid, I would feel myself writing a column on the dinner I attended last night. Likewise, I would prefer to be halfway between office work and being shot at, without wanting to offend office jobs. For my part, during the next war that I will cover, I will be more impressed than ever by the discreet courage of civilians who endure more than I ever will. They must stay where they are. I can go back to London.

In fact, it had the reputation of staying in a conflict zone longer than most "visiting firefighters" who make brief visits and leave as soon as the interest of their press offices begins to fade, even if the fundamental situation is not resolved. This was an important reason why his reports were remarkable for their ideas and local knowledge.

In 1999, reporting on the plight of refugees in East Timor, she insisted on staying until their evacuation was secured, although some aid officials wanted to withdraw sooner. Shortly before her badignment in Syria, she spent many weeks in Libya and was one of the last journalists to interview Colonel Gaddafi.

Daughter of a teacher, Marie Colvin was born in Oyster Bay, Long Island, in 1957 and was educated at the local high school. She worked in Paris for United Press International before joining The Sunday Times in 1986 as correspondent for the Middle East. Among the stories she talked about, there was the war between Iran and Iraq, the conflict in Yemen and the two Gulf Wars.

By expanding her field of operations, she reported on the wars in Indonesia, Kosovo and Chechnya, for which she won one of the many awards she has attracted over her career. This one described how she had escaped from the Russian troops. The only path open to him was a pathway through mountains leading to a remote and almost inaccessible place. After four days, she was rescued by an American helicopter. The judges of the British press award commented: "His escape from Chechnya was a great adventure, told with emotion. It was one of the great stories of adventures of all time. "

The Foreign Press Association and the International Women's Media Foundation (for courage) have also been rewarded. In 2009, she was honored by the directors of the Martha Gellhorn Award for her "distinguished work over the years in the service of journalism". This made him particularly happy since Gellhorn, who recounted the Spanish Civil War and World War II, was one of his heroines and an influential model.

Colvin's itinerant profession was not conducive to a stable private life and his three marriages unfortunately ended badly. Her second husband was journalist and author Patrick Bishop and his third, Juan Carlos Gumucio, a Bolivian journalist who committed suicide in 2002. One of the few outside interests for which she devoted herself was sailing, where she has become very competent.

Its final report, in The Sunday Times Four days ago, the combination of ingenuity and compbadion was characteristic: "I entered Homs through a smugglers route that I was committed to not reveal, crossing walls in the dark and slipping into muddy trenches … Last Wednesday, she lost her top floor … No shop is open. Families share what they have with their loved ones and neighbors. Many dead and wounded are those who risked looking for food … The magnitude of the human tragedy in the city is immense. The inhabitants live in terror … The question of all: "Why have we been abandoned by the world?"

Marie Colvin, journalist, born on January 12, 1956, died on February 22, 2012