The recent deaths of two journalists in Afghanistan is a painful reminder of the lengths that some will go to in order to bring us “the story”. My heart goes out to their families and friends - their pain must be unimaginable. I quietly grieve for both; my respect for them: immense.
Michelle Lang was killed by an IED after being in country for a matter of weeks. (http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/749500--reporter-died-doing-what-she-loved)
Rupert Hamer suffered the same fate only weeks later. Unlike Lang, Hamer was on his fifth trip to Afghanistan and had covered other hot spots around the world. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade+sundaymirror)
Reporting for newspapers an ocean apart, the bond they shared was a thirst for the story; the story that could only be told by risking life and limb. As a public affairs officer in the military, my respect for such individuals runs deep. They choose to accept the same risks as our men and women in uniform so that others can benefit from the information they seek.
With the Internet regarded as a seemingly endless pipe, feeding free information to our screens by the minute, we sometimes forget the lengths that some must go in order to feed “the machine”; the price of that so-called free information.
For Michelle Lang and Rupert Hamer, that price went beyond measure…
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