Sunday Times of London owner Rupert Murdoch paid tribute to famed American war reporter Marie Colvin on Wednesday, after news of her tragic death surfaced.
Colvin, who had reported from the front lines of war for the Sunday Times for the past two decades, was killed in a shelling attack in Homs, Syria. Colvin was interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper just one day before her death. Colvin joined the program by phone and described the situation in Homs, which she described as chaotic. Award-winning French photojournalist Rémi Ochlik was also killed in the attack.
Murdoch released a statement praising Colvin for her heroic work. He described her as "one of the most outstanding foreign correspondents of her generation." The Sunday Times also released Colvin's final piece on its website on Wednesday, outside of the paper's pay wall.
Prime Minister David Cameron also spoke about the newsof Colvin's death. "This is a desperately sad reminder of the risks that journalists take to inform the world of what is happening and the dreadful events in Syria, and our thoughts should be with her family and her friends," he said.
Read Murdoch's entire statement below:
Rupert Murdoch statement on the death of Marie Colvin: It is with great sadness that I have learned of the death of Marie Colvin, one of the most outstanding foreign correspondents of her generation, who was killed in Homs in Syria today while reporting for The Sunday Times.
She was a victim of a shell attack by the Syrian army on a building that had been turned into an impromptu press centre by the rebels. Our photographer, Paul Conroy, was with her and is believed to have been injured. We are doing all we can in the face of shelling and sniper fire to get him to safety and to recover Marie's body.
Marie had fearlessly covered wars across the Middle East and south Asia for 25 years for The Sunday Times. She put her life in danger on many occasions because she was driven by a determination that the misdeeds of tyrants and the suffering of the victims did not go unreported. This was at great personal cost, including the loss of the sight in one eye while covering the civil war in Sri Lanka. This injury did not stop her from returning to even more dangerous assignments.
Our immediate thoughts are with her family.