Women On The Front Line: Female Reporters In War Zones - People - Stylist Magazine

  • Women on the front line
  • Women on the front line
  • Women on the front line
  • Women on the front line

Women on the front line

Female war correspondents in Libya and beyond

As Libya celebrates the first anniversary of its rebel uprising that led to the ousting and eventual death of Colonel Gaddafi today (17 February), we look back at media coverage of the revolution - specifically the fearless group of female war correspondents leading the live coverage of events.

Sky News' Alex Crawford became something of a sensation on Twitter in August last year after riding into Tripoli on a rebel pick-up truck, providing dramatic live broadcasts from a satellite dish powered by a cigarette lighter socket.

Mother-of-four Crawford later trumped her rivals again by becoming the first television journalist to report live from Colonel Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli.

Amid volleys of celebratory gunfire and wearing a protective tin hat, she interviewed euphoric rebels and calmly translated the excitement of the moment that the people of Libya had waited so long for.

Her landmark coverage was variously described as "a class act," "heroic journalism" and "astonishing" by admirers on Twitter and beyond.

Kevin Bakhurst, controller of the BBC News channel, tweeted: "All credit to Alex Crawford and her team for her very brave reporting from Tripoli. It looks incredibly dangerous. Many teams on that convoy decided it was too risky/dangerous to continue with rebels – which I also respect."

But Crawford was not the only female correspondent to front coverage of the chaotic situation in Libya as it unfolded over the past year. The BBC's Orla Guerin, Channel 4's Lindsey Hilsum and Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr also monitored the conflict closely, with a series of dramatic and daring live reports, in what veteran war correspondent Janine di Giovanni described as "a gang of fantastic women reporters."

Watch some of the best and most compelling broadcasts from female war correspondents in Libya below. To celebrate the profession in true style, we've also included a clip from Kate Adie, arguably the most famous female war reporter, and her historic broadcast from Tiananmen Square protests in China, 1989.

ABOVE: Sky News' Alex Crawford reports live on the rebel invasion of Tripoli aboard an open-top truck heading for the city.

ABOVE: Sky News' Alex Crawford becomes the first TV journalist to report from inside Gaddafi's compound after it has been seized by rebels.

ABOVE: Channel 4's international editor Lindsey Hilsum reports live from Zintan in western Libya, as the rebels advance on 18 August.

ABOVE: Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports live from the Green Square in Tripoli as rebels celebrate their advance on the Libyan capital on 21 August.

ABOVE: The BBC's Orla Guerin reports from Misrata, where rebel fighters were running "dangerously low" of ammunition, earlier this month.

ABOVE: Kate Adie's landmark coverage of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, where hundreds of students were killed by government forces after staging a peaceful protest in the centre of Beijing.

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