Marie Colvin's death only strengthens my hope to follow in her footsteps

Marie Colvin's last report from within the besieged city of Homs.

A quick clarification: the title of this blog is not a suggestion that Marie Colvin's death was some kind of martyrdom. I am not saying that I want to be killed in conflict, or glorifying what happened to her, because what happened to her and Remi Ochlik, the French photojournalist, was dreadful.

But it has been my ambition to become a war reporter for several years. One of my journalistic idols is Sky correspondent, Alex Crawford, who I consider to be one of the greatest reporters of her generation. On Tuesday night, I was in attendance when Ms Crawford gave the annual Bob Friend Memorial Lecture at the University of Kent. In it, she said:

"It is necessary for us to be there (Syria), to see what is going on, to witness what is happening and to report live from there. We all feel we have a job to do and an important contribution to make. Women are in the ascendancy in war reporting all over the world. And we shouldn’t even be discussing whether or why. It is important and utterly right."

Marie Colvin was a firm believer in this. She was due to return from Syria in the next few days, but stayed to complete one last story, as she felt there was more for the world to see.

Now the argument being made is that the job is too dangerous. Reporters Sans Frontieres have made the suggestion that women reporters should be withdrawn from Egypt, following incidents of sexual violence and abuse towards them. Ms Crawford made a passionate argument against this, urging journalism not to go back to the attitudes of the 1950's. And she is absolutely right.

The job is dangerous. Colvin herself said this in November 2010, during a speech to service commerating war reporters who had died in the past decade. She said:

"The need for frontline, objective reporting has never been more compelling. Covering a war means going to places torn by chaos, destruction, and death, and trying to bear witness. It means trying to find the truth in a sandstorm of propaganda when armies, tribes or terrorists clash. And yes, it means taking risks, not just for yourself but often for the people who work closely with you."

And this is why I hope to follow in Marie's footsteps, and in Alex's footsteps. Ever since William Howard Russell uncovered the dire state of the British Army during the Crimea War, war reporters have had a great influence on the public sphere. It is their bravery, resilience and fantastic reportage that brings about change. The need to 'bear witness' as Colvin put it, is so important. The world has to know about war. It may not want to, it may not be interested, but people are dying and truth needs to spoken to power. The Times' front page today sums it up brilliantly, better than I ever could: "The price of truth."

Now it seems Colvin's truth could cause the change that she fought for. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has promised to redouble the efforts to bring down the regime of Assad in Syria. President Sarkozy said that the regime must go. It appears the death of two journalists is the wake-up call the world needed and Assad's house of cards is falling. It is just saddening that it took this long.