Tragedy Hits The Media World: Award-Winning Journalists Killed In Libya

Two world-renowned photojournalists have been killed on the front lines in the on-going war between Col. Gaddafi and the rebel forces in Libya.

Tim Hetherington, co-director of Oscar-nominated Afghan war documentary “Restrepo,” and Chris Hondros, senior staff photographer for Getty Images, have both been killed in the besieged town of Misrata.

The town has come under heavy bombardment for the last two-months as Gaddafi cracks down on dissidents, and is the only Western Libyan town controlled by rebels.

Facts around the incident are still emerging and the identities of further victims have yet to be released, but it is believed a number of journalists have been injured in the fighting.

The tragic news of the two award-winning photographers fates surfaced through social media sites Twitter and Facebook, apparently updated by collogues who were with them at the hospital.

Along with fellow colleagues, Hetherington – winner of the 2007 Word Press Photo Award – and Hondros -receiver of the Robert Capa Gold Medal (war photography’s highest award) – left Benghazi by boat to cover the conflict and arrived in the besieged town of Misrata.

Hetherington tweeted the day before he was killed: “In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO.”

The group of journalists made their way through the chaos and conflict of gunfire and bombing, arriving at the front lines where it is rumored they were hit by a rocket-propelled grenade on Tripoli street.

Hetherington’s family wrote on Facebook, “It is with great sadness we learned that our son and brother photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was killed today in Misrata, Libya by a rocket-propelled grenade,”

The statement continued, “Tim was in Libya to continue his ongoing multimedia project to highlight humanitarian issues during time of war and conflict. He will be forever missed.”

Here is the 2007 Word Press award-winning picture of a soldier in Afghanistan:

Tags: Afghanistan, Chris Hondros, Co-Director, Colonel, Facebook, Gaddafi, Getty Images, Libya, Misrata, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Oscar, senior staff photographer, social media, son and brother photographer, The Media World, Tim Hetherington, Tripoli, Twitter

William has been in New York for the past couple of years studying screenwriting. A native of Scotland, he doesn’t disappoint – playing the bagpipes and indulging in Single Malt Whisky. He came third ...read more