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By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) Dec 30 | Word came over the Reuters Wire Service newsfeed earlier tonight that the worldwide Press Corps community had tragically lost another member. Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang, 34, was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan Dec. 30, 2009, while covering the war for the Canwest News Service. Four Canadian soldiers also died in the blast.
Although I haven't lived in Ontario for nearly three decades now, I still maintain a residence there, and still try to get home to Canada at least once every few years if I can. For me, my heart is still very much attached to my country, my people, my home. To lose a young person like Michelle, young vibrant, and I've gathered from phone calls home to friends and professional acquaintances, an award winning journalist that eventually could have ended up being a noteworthy individual in our profession, is more than tragic it's practically an obscene offence.
I too have served in Afghanistan on assignment and know first hand just how dangerous & unstable that country & region are. But it is our job to bring the facts to our readers, to tell the stories as we witness them occurring, and to bring truth & light into places where sometimes it seems that only darkness reigns. I didn't know this young lady, never heard of her obviously, but my heart aches for her family, which also very much includes her professional family of fellow journalists.
I think it fitting that a tribute and eulogy to Miss Lang was this column composed by a fellow Canadian journalist & colleague who I present here in his owns words:
Remembering a fallen colleague, journalist Michelle Lang
By Craig Pearson, Windsor StarDecember 30, 2009 11:06 PM | WINDSOR, Ont. — The war in Afghanistan has hit home for me harder than I hoped it would.
When I heard the news Wednesday that the first Canadian journalist killed in Afghanistan was Michelle Lang — the award-winning Calgary Herald reporter working for Canwest newspapers — my hands began to tremble.
I felt blood drain from my face.
The 34-year-old journalist was killed along with four Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb. Five others were wounded.
I did not know Michelle well, but I did complete a three-day war-correspondent course with her last year in Ottawa.
And she contacted me by e-mail last month as she was preparing to head to Canada's most dangerous media assignment. She wanted to talk.
Instantly likable, Michelle did not appear at first like the type to head to a war zone, given that she could seem a little soft-spoken. But as someone who won a National Newspaper Award for exploring Alberta health care, she obviously did her homework.
She was busily speaking with reporters who had gone before her. I worked last June 3 to July 15 as the Afghanistan correspondent for Canwest.
So she called me by phone and we chatted for some time about the dangers of Afghanistan and what to expect. She expressed a little apprehension about her upcoming mission, the same apprehension I felt before shipping out.
Yet she was clearly committed to going, to telling the stories of Canadian soldiers and Afghan people in a hellhole existence of bombs and poverty, so I simply tried to reassure her.
I appreciated it when reporters told me the odds were in my favour as I readied myself for war, so I did the same for her. The irony of that conversation haunts me now.
The truth is, only when you put on a helmet and flak jacket in Afghanistan and venture "outside the wire" — off Kandahar Airfield — can you truly appreciate the danger.
It hangs in the air with the dust, like death.
I had this naive belief that reporters would somehow be safer than soldiers. But we scribes travel in the same vehicles and walk in the same areas as the troops.
All that danger came rushing back to me like a sandstorm when I heard about Michelle, who was two weeks into a six-week assignment.
I saw myself riding in that light-armoured vehicle when the truck behind us hit a roadside bomb that we had somehow missed; I felt myself sitting in that outdoor "office" at a forward operating base when I heard that rocket whistling in and exploding perhaps 20 metres from me; and I heard the gunfire rat-a-tatting in the distance as I walked through the volcanic heat on patrol in rural Afghanistan.
And then I thought of Michelle.
She knew the only way to really cover the story was to go to it. I know how much courage that takes and I respect her for it.
Over the years I have written a number of stories about dedicated police officers and soldiers and firefighters — even athletes — who have died too young.
I always rightly hailed them as heroes.
Because of Michelle's bravery and commitment to her craft, I now know more than ever you don't have to carry a gun to be a hero.
Sometimes you need only carry a pen.
Michelle's employer Dennis Skulsky, President and CEO of Canwest Publishing issued this statement:
This is an unbelievable loss to her fiancé Michael, her family and the countless colleagues and friends at The Calgary Herald, Canwest News Service and across our organization. Michelle was honoured recently with a National Newspaper Award in recognition of her coverage of the Alberta health care system. In all that she did, Michelle exemplified the skills and dedication that have made Canwest a leader in news. She will be deeply missed not only by those who knew her well but also the countless readers who relied on her excellent reporting in the pages of our newspapers.
Michelle took this assignment voluntarily, as do all of our war zone journalists and was two weeks into a six week assignment. Michelle had been filing stories of Christmas with the troops, she had interviewed military leaders about the progress our military had made and written a story about the diverse population of civilians serving in support functions in Afghanistan.
Our thoughts and prayers along with our support have been extended to Michelle’s family.
Michelle Lang Photograph by: Chris Bolin, Canwest News Service
[Updated on: Thu, 31 December 2009 05:32] |
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Loss of a colleague who was way too young 
