Reply #17: The woman in a war zone

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(Paragraphs broken up for readability)

Source: Maclean's (Canada)

Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford says there are dangers everywhere, whether in Libya or London


Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images


by Alex Derry on Thursday, September 15, 2011 11:20am


As rebels stormed Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s lavish Tripoli compound in August, one foreign correspondent, Alex Crawford of Sky News, was there to cover the action, at one point even interviewing an ecstatic rebel fighter wearing one of Gadhafi’s military caps stolen from the dictator’s master bedroom. Crawford has been called the journalistic face of the Libyan conflict.


But she is also a mother, and her presence at the deadly conflict has reignited a familiar debate over whether female correspondents, mothers in particular, belong on the front lines of a conflict zone. Is it legitimate to question whether they should be putting themselves at risk in deadly environments while their children grow up far away, or are such doubts inherently sexist?


Crawford, 49, is a veteran journalist, having worked at Sky News since its founding in 1989. After becoming a foreign correspondent for the network in 2006, she has reported from hostile zones including Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Tunisia and Egypt.


Her coverage of the 2008 Mumbai attacks won Sky News a BAFTA, and she was also awarded the 2010 Woman Journalist of the Year by Women in Film and Television, among other awards. According to her company bio, she has been “arrested, detained, interrogated and faced live bullets, tear-gassing, rubber bullets, IEDs, and mortar shells.”

...


But Crawford bristles at the notion that people question whether it is responsible of her to do her job while also being a mother, calling such a proposition “really insulting and very, very sexist.” ....


http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/09/15/the-woman-in-a-war-zone/

Crawford has done stellar work covering the Libyan Revolution. It should be noted, as well, that we've seen more work by women war correspondents than ever before, and the quality of their reporting overall has been exceptional.