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Categories: Woman of the week
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Woman of the week, Marie Colvin

Risked her life to save those of others

Only 2 days to go until International Woman's Day and at Platform 51 we are continuing our countdown with a woman of the day every day this week! Today, we are paying our respects to Marie Colvin, the war correspondent who was killed only 2 weeks ago in Syria. Platform 51 want to celebrate her remarkable work as a journalist -her dedication to her job shone through every one of her stories and she will be missed by the political world, the reporting world and by the public.

One of Britain's most renowned war correspondents for nearly thirty years, Marie Colvin was American. Brought up in New York, she went on to study Anthropology at Yale and then English Literature. From that point onwards she never turned back and pursued journalism, the job that would eventually be the cause of her death on 22^nd February 2012.

Marie Colvin always reported from the frontline, covering the effects wartime had on civilians. She said "I feel I have a moral responsibility towards them, that it would be cowardly to ignore them. If journalists have a chance to save their lives, they should do so." And this is exactly what Marie did. Some 1500 women and children from Sri Lanka are still alive thanks to her persistent publicising of events to the world. Often writing with a focus on women and children, Marie's writing was clear evidence of her empathy towards those directly affected by large-scale violence.

The notion of danger never deterred Marie - and she never gave up broadcasting events to the world, regardless of potential peril. Her efforts have been acknowledged - she won foreign reporter of the year in 2001 and 2010, was given the International Woman's Media Foundation award for her invaluable work and the list goes on.

Platform 51 are in awe of Marie Colvin's commitment to her work. With her trademark black eye-patch she wore to cover a war wound, her continual placing of herself in danger to broadcast information to the rest of the world are things that rendered her one of a kind. This kind of respect for humanity and social awareness are qualities we can all learn from: these are qualities that are absolutely necessary if we are to become a more conscious society.