Ruling gives power to might of the pen

Awar correspondent of extraordinary courage, Marie Colvin knew the danger she faced. She had reported from such places as Iraq, Chechnya, East Timor, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka, where she lost an eye to a rocket-propelled grenade.

Her last war, the Syrian Army’s bombardment of rebels in Homs, she told a friend, was ‘‘the worst we’ve ever seen’’. But it was not a stray round that killed her and a French photojournalist, Re´ mi Ochlik, there in 2012.

‘‘Officials at the highest level of the Syrian government carefully planned and executed the artillery assault on the Baba Amr media centre for the specific purpose of killing the journalists inside,’’ wrote Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia last week in awarding Colvin’s relatives US$302.5 million in damages against Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and his associates.

Colvin’s relatives may never collect the money. The greater importance of the ruling is to shine a light on the dangers journalists face not only from the violence they cover but also from autocratic rulers who would silence them.

Dictators have always tried to muzzle a free press. That is not so different from President Trump’s depiction of the media as ‘‘enemies of the people’’ or his relentless unloading on ‘‘fake news’’ at his rallies – words that can only encourage violence against journalists.