Paul Conroy | |
---|---|
Born | Liverpool, England | 18 July 1964
Nationality | British |
Occupation(s) | Freelance photographer, filmmaker |
Spouse | Kate Baird (m. 1998) |
Children | 3 |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/ | Royal Artillery |
Years of service | 1980–1987 |
Rank | Gunner |
Paul Conroy (born 18 July 1964) is a British freelance photographer and filmmaker who works in the British media. A former soldier with the Royal Artillery between 1980 and 1987, he has since worked extensively as a journalist in combat zones, producing footage from conflicts in the Balkans, the Middle East, and Libya. In 2011, he was shortlisted for the PRX Bayeux TV report along with Marie Colvin, a war correspondent with The Sunday Times .
Conroy was born on 18 July 1964 in Liverpool to Les Conroy and his wife Joan (née Mountain). He has two brothers and a sister. [1]
On 22 February 2012 during the Syrian uprising, Conroy was injured while covering events from the Syrian city of Homs, a stronghold of Syrian opposition forces, after the building where he and other journalists were based was shelled by Syrian government forces. Marie Colvin and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed in the attack, while Conroy was injured along with another journalist, French reporter Édith Bouvier of Le Figaro . [2] [3]
Conroy suffered leg injuries in the attack and was subsequently smuggled out of the city and across the Syrian border to Lebanon. [4] Avaaz coordinated the evacuation out of the city, but about twenty Syrian activists died during the evacuation operation. [5] [6]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy described the killing of Colvin and Ochlik as an assassination. It is believed that the journalists were targeted. [7] The editor of The Sunday Times said he believed his reporter had been targeted. Conroy later described the situation in Homs as an "indiscriminate massacre" and "slaughter" and compared it to the destruction inflicted on Grozny during the Chechen Wars. [8]
Conroy later wrote a book covering the events. [9]
Conroy married Katherine Joye "Kate" Baird in Fort William, Highland, Scotland in 1998. They have three sons together: Max (born 1992), Kim (born 1994) and Otto (born 2000 ). [1] He is a supporter of football club Liverpool F.C. [10]
Guy Patrick O'Connell is an English television and radio presenter. He presents BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House programme each Sunday morning. He is also an occasional presenter of the PM programme. O'Connell is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Avaaz is an American-based nonprofit organization launched in January 2007 that promotes global activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, animal rights, corruption, poverty, and conflict. The word "avaaz" means voice in several Asian and European languages. In 2012, The Guardian referred to Avaaz as "the globe's largest and most powerful online activist network".
Lucas Dolega, born Loucas von Zabiensky-Mebrouk and also called Lucas Mebrouk Dolega, was a French/German photojournalist. He was reportedly killed by Tunisian police while he was photographing a protest in Tunis. As reported in The Guardian (UK), Dolega was the first journalist killed during the 2010-2011 Tunisian protests, according to Reporters Without Borders. He was also the first journalist to die while on assignment during the Arab Spring uprisings.
Since the start of the Syrian Civil War, all sides have used social media to try to discredit their opponents by using negative terms such as 'Syrian regime' for the government, 'armed gangs/terrorists' for the rebels, 'Syrian government/US State Department propaganda', 'biased', 'US/Western/foreign involvement'. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, given the complexity of the Syrian conflict, media bias in reporting remains a key challenge, plaguing the collection of useful data and misinforming researchers and policymakers regarding the actual events taking place.
The siege of Homs was a military confrontation between the Syrian military and the Syrian opposition in the city of Homs, a major rebel stronghold during the Syrian Civil War. The siege lasted three years from May 2011 to May 2014, and ultimately resulted in an opposition withdrawal from the city.
Events from the year 2012 in France:
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to April 2012, during which time the spate of protests that began in January 2011 lasted into another calendar year. An Arab League monitoring mission ended in failure as Syrian troops and anti-government militants continued to do battle across the country and the Syrian government prevented foreign observers from touring active battlefields, including besieged opposition strongholds. A United Nations-backed ceasefire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan met a similar fate, with unarmed UN peacekeepers' movements tightly controlled by the government and fighting.
The 2012 Homs offensive was a Syrian Army offensive on the armed rebellion stronghold of Homs, within the scope of the Siege of Homs, beginning in early February 2012 and ending with the U.N. brokered cease fire on 14 April 2012.
Gilles Jacquier was a French photojournalist and reporter for France Télévisions. Jacquier worked as a special correspondent for Envoyé spécial, one of France's best known documentary programs which airs on France 2. He had a successful career, has covered major international military conflicts and won many awards during his life. He was killed on 11 January 2012 while covering the ongoing Syrian Civil War in Homs, Syria. Jacquier was the first Western journalist killed in Syria since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War.
Marie Catherine Colvin was an American journalist who worked as a foreign affairs correspondent for the British newspaper The Sunday Times from 1985 until her death. She was one of the most prominent war correspondents of her generation, widely recognized for her extensive coverage on the frontlines of various conflicts across the globe. On February 22, 2012, while she was covering the siege of Homs alongside the French photojournalist Rémi Ochlik, the pair were killed in a targeted attack made by Syrian government forces.
Rémi Ochlik was a French photojournalist who was known for his photographs of war and conflict in Haiti and the Arab Spring revolutions. Ochlik died in the February 2012 bombardment of Homs during the 2011–2012 Syrian uprising along with veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin.
The first of the two battles in al-Qusayr was fought by the Syrian army and Shabiha against the Free Syrian Army in the small city of Al-Qusayr, near Homs, during late winter and spring of 2012.
The Amnesty International UK Media Awards 2012 were opened in December 2012, the short-list was published 25 April 2012 and the awards announced 29 May 2012.
Issam Jad'aan Zahreddine was a Syrian military officer and former commander of the Syrian Republican Guard. He played a major role in the Syrian Civil War, leading Syrian government forces on several fronts. His most prominent role was the leadership of the surrounded Syrian forces during the over three-year long Siege of Deir ez-Zor. On 18 October 2017, Zahreddine was killed by a land mine explosion during operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Saqr island in Deir ez-Zor.
Ali Mahmoud Othman is a Syrian citizen journalist and activist from Homs. He is nicknamed the "Eyes of Baba Amr" and "Jeddo" (Grandfather).
Events from the year 2012 in Syria.
Hadi Al Abdullah is a Syrian citizen journalist and activist who has risen to prominence through his coverage of the Syrian Civil War.
War correspondents in Syria refers to the situation experienced by war correspondents during the Syrian Civil War starting in 2011.
A Private War is a 2018 American biographical war drama film directed by Matthew Heineman, and starring Rosamund Pike as journalist Marie Colvin. The film is based on the 2012 article "Marie Colvin’s Private War" in Vanity Fair by Marie Brenner. The film was written by Arash Amel and features Jamie Dornan, Tom Hollander and Stanley Tucci.
Media related to Paul Conroy at Wikimedia Commons