Luck, safety and the Arab Spring

By Helena Williams

Two searingly different portrayals of the Libyan uprisings show the incredible impact the “true revolution” has had on two reporters’ lives.

Sky special correspondent and her news team were the first to enter Green Square on the night the Gaddafi regime crumbled (Sky/Alex Crawford)

The past year has been relentless for journalists covering the uprisings that have swept across the Middle East and North Africa.

Dozens of news media personnel have been killed covering the events since the start of the Arab Spring just over a year ago.

Many more have been injured, detained and assaulted.

The issue of safety has rarely been more pertinent, and more present in newsrooms and living rooms, as the Arab Spring has cost the lives of a number of renowned journalists, including Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros in Libya last year and, more recently in Syria, those of Anthony Shadid, Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik. At a time when the risks of conflict reporting are searing and stark, Channel 4′s International News Editor Lindsey Hilsum and Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford, both distinguished television correspondents, say that covering Libya has had a massive impact on their lives.

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