Celebrated Lebanese-American journalist, Anthony Shadid, died last week due to an asthma attack, while entering Syria without a visa. American reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik also passed away this week, from a volley of rockets in Homs, Syria. In 2010, photojournalist Joao Silva was crippled in Afghanistan, while photographers Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington were killed only weeks later in Libya.

The field of journalism has become so bogged down by local, and to some extent, international, news stations that the public eye too often under appreciates the sacrifices made in the name of news. We, who receive our news from the comfort of our own screens, only reference journalists when they are in err, but forget to praise them when they reveal truths that would otherwise remain undiscovered.

Shadid, who only last year received an honorary degree from AUB, will no doubt leave a legacy behind him in AUB, Lebanon, and the Arab world as a whole. I was sitting in the audience during his speech last year, and remember being in awe of the trauma he had been through, and the unassuming courage he exuded. He concluded his speech with such a moving note, that I cannot but reiterate it:

“For the first time in a long time, we have the ability to imagine and, of course, more importantly, to forge a new reality through that imagination. Traumas are still ahead. We only have to look toward Syria, at Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and elsewhere. But our Arab world will never be the same, nor should it. In your lifetime, occupations will end, struggles will lose their cynicism, legitimacy will come through the voices that you raise. There is hope today, a hope that can be inspired by an ability to imagine something more. And hope, I’m almost sure, is enough.”

To die for hope, for knowledge, for truth. What then is bravery?

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In memory of Anthony Shadid, Marie Colvin, Remi Ochlik and countless others who lived and died on the field to bring truths to the world. May you rest in peace.