In the days before Cambodia collapsed into chaos and death, New York Times photographer Dith Pran had to choose whether to join his family in exile or stay on to record the scene. He decided to stay, a move that put him in the middle of a four-year journey through the Khmer Rouge hell that descended on his country, an odyssey portrayed in the harrowing film “The Killing Fields.”
After his escape, he became a staff photographer for the Times and a champion for his countrymen and against genocide.
There can be few journalists whose decision to cover the news has brought so much pain with it. But in that crucial moment when Dith picked duty over safety, he showed for all time his strength and character. No doubt he would have picked differently had he known everything that would follow, but he knew it wouldn’t be easy. He is a hero.
Here is the Times story about Dith’s death today.
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