Photojournalists killed, 3 gravely wounded in Libya

[in_cog_ni_to]

Wed Apr 20, 12:26 pm ET
Photojournalists killed, gravely wounded in Libya
By Joe Pompeo

Vanity Fair confirmed a little after 1:30 p.m. on Twitter Wednesday that one of its contributing photographers, Tim Hetherington (pictured right), has died while covering the conflict in Libya. Hetherington was a renowned British-American photojournalist and the Oscar-nominated director, with Sebastian Junger, of "Restrepo," a 2010 documentary about a year spent on assignment for Vanity Fair in Afghanistan.

The New York Times' C.J. Chivers, who is stationed in Libya, reported the news shortly thereafter, confirming that three other photographers were wounded: "The wounds to two of the photographers -- Chris Hondros and Guy Martin -- were grave, according to a colleague at the triage center where they were being treated Wednesday night. Their prospects for survival were not immediately clear." Hondros was on assignment for Getty. The fourth photographer, Michael Christopher Brown, reportedly suffered shrapnel injuries.

In the breathless rush to break the news, bloggers and tweeters reported without confirmation that both Hetherington and Hondros had been killed. The early reports originated from the Facebook page of a fellow photographer in Libya, Andre Liohn. Major news organizations held off reporting names until details could be confirmed and families notified.

"BBC can confirm one western journalist has been killed and three injured in a mortar attack in city of #Benghazi #libya," the British news agency tweeted.<snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20110420/ts_yb...