US reporter slain in Syria honoured with rights award

(October 06, 2012) A woman journalist from the United States killed in Syria while reporting for a British newspaper has been honoured with a human rights award. 56-year-old Marie Colvin, reporting for the Sunday Times of London, was killed Feb. 22 when Syrian army shelling struck the building that served as a makeshift media centre in Homs. Colvin was named Friday as this year's recipient of the Anna Politkovskaya Award “for her courage, integrity and passion for truth.” The award, named after a murdered Russian journalist, is given annually by the group called “RAW in WAR” (or Reach All Women in War), to a female human rights defender standing up for victims in a conflict zone. Sunday, 7th October marks the sixth anniversary of the murder of Politkovskaya, the campaigning Russian journalist and outspoken government critic, who exposed the brutal treatment of civilians in Chechnya at the hands of both Russian forces and Moscow-supported Chechen officials. In choosing Colvin for the award, “RAW in WAR” said, “She lived a life of courage and truth-telling in the face of grave danger, just as Anna did, and paid for it with her life.”