10 Journalists Who Risked Their Lives

Anas Aremeyaw Anas is all too aware that his investigative journalism could ruffle some feathers and get him in trouble. As a result, the Ghanaian writer and documentarian takes great pains to hide his face and identity from those who could cause him harm. Anas works undercover to expose corruption at every level of Ghanaian society, from the country’s football association, to its judiciary. As a result of this hard work, a spotlight has been shone upon the country's inner workings, while Anas has been dealt both praise and criticism for his methodology of "name, shame and jail."

Outside of conflict zones, Mexico is the most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist. Despite the risks, reporter and writer Javier Valdez Cárdenas committed much of his career to documenting corruption and organized crime in his home state of Sinaloa. He began his career as a television reporter, before moving into investigative journalism in the late 90s. In 2003, he co-founded the weekly newspaper Riodoce, dedicating it to exposing Mexico’s criminal underworld. His outspoken criticism won him the Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award in 2011. Tragically however, in 2017 he was gunned down by unknown assailants a few blocks from Riodoce’s offices.

A Saudi Arabian dissident who dared to criticize the Saudi government and Royal Family, Jamal Khashoggi paid the ultimate price. There isn’t room here to properly discuss the intricacies of Khashoggi’s career and political views, which changed over time. But after a comparatively humble start working for a bookstore chain, he became a leading critic of Saudi Arabia’s government and human rights violations, frequently criticizing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. On October 2nd, 2018, Khashoggi walked into a Saudi consulate in Turkey while his fiancée waited outside … and never came out. He was reportedly murdered and dismembered by Saudi agents. The crown prince has denied involvement in the murder, despite allegedly having threatened to use “a bullet” on Kashoggi in 2017.

#7: Marie Colvin

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She lost an eye to a rocket-propelled grenade . . . and still managed to meet her deadline! Colvin took her prestigious Yale education and ran with it for all she was worth, earning her stripes in the 1980s by interviewing such figures as Muammar Gaddafi. Over subsequent decades, she covered conflicts all over the world. In East Timor her reporting from a besieged compound helped save 1,500 lives. Even after losing her eye in Sri Lanka in 2001, she forged on, donning an eyepatch. In 2012, however, an explosive device killed her during the siege of Homs in Syria, along with photojournalist Remi Ochlik. An American court found Colvin had been “specifically targeted because of her profession”.

A pioneer in her industry, Margaret Bourke-White was the first American female war correspondent. Documenting World War II in the Soviet Union, North Africa, Italy, and Germany, she braved enemy gunfire and bombing raids to capture shocking images from the battlefield, as well as of the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp. Shortly afterward, the fearless photographer chronicled the violence during the partition of India and Pakistan. Her survival of a torpedo attack, a helicopter crash, and countless other near-death experiences earned her the nickname “Maggie the Indestructible”. Today, her work is legendary, with her photographs hanging in prestigious museums around the world.

#5: Robert Fisk

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There are war reporters … and then there's English journalist Robert Fisk. Covering conflicts around the world since the 1970s, Fisk is one of the most accoladed and influential foreign correspondents alive. He’s faced danger around the world, covering The Troubles in Ireland, the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, and the Iranian Revolution, as well as about a dozen different wars in the Middle East. In the 90s, he even interviewed Osama Bin Laden. The journalist has suffered for his craft on multiple occasions - including permanent hearing loss in the Iran-Iraq war, and a beating at the hands of Pakistani refugees during the War in Afghanistan.

#4: James Foley

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James Foley was another casualty of the Syrian Civil War. Foley started his career as a teacher, working for a non-profit called Teach For America. He soon turned his attention to creative writing, working as a freelancer in New England before flying to Libya in 2011 to cover the First Libyan Civil War. Here Foley was captured and imprisoned for 44 days by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi. He survived the ordeal, but his work in Syria ended in yet another abduction. After two years as a prisoner of ISIL, Foley was beheaded in 2014, as was fellow journalist Steven Sotloff a few weeks later - sending shockwaves throughout the international community.

Anna Politkovskaya was not one to be intimidated, even when her life was on the line. The New York-raised Russian journalist spent the lion's share of her career in her mother country, working for various newspapers and writing such books as "Putin's Russia." Politkovskaya wasn't afraid to criticize life under Putin, despite death threats, detention, and even an alleged poisoning. She remained steadfast, reporting on the Second Chechen War with dedication. Her luck finally ran out on October 7th, 2006, when she was shot at point blank range by assassins in the elevator of her apartment building.

#2: Ida B. Wells

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Born a slave one year before the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, Ida B. Wells nonetheless became one of the most courageous and influential journalists of her generation. She covered the inequality still persuasive in the US after the Proclamation, particularly racial segregation and the lynching of African-Americans. In 1891, her outspoken articles lost her her teaching post, and the following year a mob burnt down her newspaper’s offices. She fled Memphis, but continued her crusade, standing up to the racist ideals of the Jim Crow south. In fact, in 1909 she became one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Before we name our number one pick, here are a few honorable mentions. Nellie Bly Lowell Bergman Tim Lopes Veronica Guerin Daniel Pearl

#1: Robert Capa

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He was called “the greatest war photographer in the world”. Better known by his pseudonym “Robert Capa”, Hungarian native Endre Friedmann was a legend in his own lifetime. Capa was responsible for the famous snapshots of the Normandy Invasion of World War II, documenting the D-Day campaign on Omaha Beach. When he snapped the “Magnificent 11”, as they became known, he’d already covered the Spanish Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War, and would go on to photograph the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and the First Indochina War. Sadly, he lost his life in 1954 when he stepped on a landmine in Vietnam while preparing for a shot. He’s remembered today as one of the most daring photojournalists in history.