Alex Crawford

Award-winning reporter raps out warning as world hears of Marie Colvin death

As news emerged that Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin had been killed in the civil war torn town of Homs in Syria, a top international TV correspondence called for all war reporters to be treated equally, no matter if they are male or female.

That was the message from Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford when she spoke to students at the University of Kent in Chatham, just hours before it was revealed Ms Colvin had been killed along with a French photographer. The house they were staying in was hit by a shell.

Before she knew of the tragedy, Ms Crawford made an impassioned plea for female journalists to continue to be treated equally as war reporters during her delivery of the annual Bob Friend Memorial lecture.

Entitled Alex Crawford: A Reporter’s Story, the three-times winner of the coveted Royal Television Society television journalist of the year award said there were now more female journalists than ever working as foreign correspondents, so equality was long overdue.

Speaking about incidents in Egypt and other Arab Spring locations when female journalists had been targeted and assaulted, the reporter said any suggestion that women should not be sent to war zones was wrong. Female journalists “have a duty” to broadcast from the front line, she said.

She told the audience: “This has been a dangerous series of revolutions to cover - whether you are a man or a woman. It can’t get more hostile than what many of us have had to cover over the past year. It is still tough - and women reporters face a lot of danger on the frontline.

“In Egypt several female reporters were sexually assaulted within days of each other, trying to cover the elections there. One - Mona Eltahawy - had both her arms broken during a beating by Egyptian security forces.

“These assaults followed the sexual attack on Lara Logan, from CBS earlier last year.

“High profile journalists - all of them female. The attacks led to Reporters Sans Frontieres suggesting that all media outlets should stop sending women to Egypt to cover the current troubles.

“Have we stepped back to the 1950s? Are we really suggesting the news organisations should not send women into difficult and dangerous places now after years and years of trying to convince editors to give us a chance?

“Egypt was and is a dangerous place for reporters whether you are male or female. But in Egypt alone over the week that Mona and Caroline Sinz were attacked, there were at least 27 journalists who were beaten, detained or harassed - all but four were male.

”We female reporters get better access to female protestors, better access to female medics in female wards, better access to those who are abused sexually because many of these women will talk only to other women.

“It is necessary for us to be there, to see what is going on, to witness what is happening and to report live from there.

“We all feel we have a job to do and an important contribution to make. Women are in the ascendancy in war reporting all over the world. And we shouldn’t even be discussing whether or why. It is important and utterly right.”

Introducing Alex Crawford, Professor Tim Luckhurst, head of the university’s centre for journalism, said she was the latest in a line of illustrious female reporters, going back to the US journalist Martha Gellhorn who covered all the major conflicts and was renowned as one of the finest correspondents of the 20th century, who had acted as an inspiration to women entering journalism.

The event, at Kent’s Medway campus also saw Rob Kirk, editorial development manager for Sky News, present first-year student Jemma Collins with the 2012 Sky Bob Friend Memorial Scholarship.

Both the lecture and scholarship were established in 2009 in memory of Bob Friend, who was the original face of Sky News as well as a long-serving BBC journalist.

Congratulating Miss Collins, Mr Kirk said: “We’re delighted that this partnership between Sky News and the University of Kent creates a wonderful opportunity for a young journalist at the start of their career. As a man of Kent, Bob would have approved.”

Bob Friend joined Sky News at its launch 22 years ago and quickly became the face of the new channel. In his 14 years with Sky News he won a glowing international reputation for his warmth, intelligence and humour, winning a number of awards for his presenting skills.

He died in October 2008 and is survived by his wife Marion and their two daughters. The annual lecture and scholarship were established by a partnership of the Friend family, Sky News and the University of Kent.

The scholarship is awarded to a student who has demonstrated outstanding academic and professional merit and shows great potential for a future career in journalism. Jemma Collins will have her first year tuition fees paid and is guaranteed a four-week placement at Sky News later in the year.