I popped in to the Amnesty Media Awards last night where I had the privilege of meeting the parents and sister of Tom Hurndall. Tom, a photojournalism student, was shot by a sniper from the Israeli Defense Forces while escorting children away from gunfire in Gaza in April 2003. A film about his family's struggle to find out what happened to their son was nominated for the Television Documentary and Drama award.
Tom's mother Jocelyn explained to me the trouble the filmmakers had gone to in order to ensure the film was an accurate depiction of Tom's story. Tom wanted to make some kind of a difference to the world, she said, and to be remembered, and she clearly felt this film would help to do that. The family's gentle poise was extremely humbling.
I had read about Tom's death and the conviction for manslaughter of Taysir Hayb, the sniper who shot Tom, but headlines inevitably drift to the back of one's mind over time. Remembering Tom's story again forced me to stop and think again about the photographers, like Tom and Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, who pay the ultimate price in order to tell a story. It puts pictures of flowers into a sharp perspective.