Michelle Lang, Journalist Killed Afghanistan Dec 30, 2009 along with 4 Canadian Soldiers

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Va...le+Lang+mourned+colleagues/2393634/story.html

Vancouver journalist Michelle Lang mourned by colleagues
By Doug Ward, Vancouver SunDecember 31, 2009



Afghanistan Dec. 30, 2009, while covering the war for the Canwest News Service. Four Canadian soldiers also died in the blast.


In recent days she had filed a report from Kandahar City on the death of Victoria soldier Lieut. Andrew Nuttall and a year-end story on how the past 12 months in Afghanistan had been the most deadly for coalition forces since the war began.



On Wednesday Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang, a 34-year-old from Vancouver who was planning to get married this summer, became another Canadian casualty in Afghanistan — the subject of war obituaries rather than their author.

She is the first Canadian reporter to be killed in the Afghanistan mission.
Lang was on secondment to Canwest News Service and was travelling with a provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar City when the attack on their vehicle occurred. Four Canadian soldiers also died in the incident. It was Lang’s first stint in Afghanistan. She arrived in the country on Dec. 11 and was due to return to Calgary on Jan. 22.

“We are all devastated by the loss of Michelle and our thoughts right now are with her family and her fiance,” said Scott Anderson, editor-in-chief of Canwest News Service. “Journalists need to put themselves at risk every day to report first-hand on important stories like Afghanistan. But that doesn’t make this any easier.”

Vancouver Sun reporter Darah Hansen met Lang in 2008 during a war correspondent training course given to Canwest reporters being assigned to Afghanistan. Lang contacted Hansen, who reported from Afghanistan a year ago, just before leaving to cover the war earlier this month.
“She expressed a normal and healthy amount of fear in going. It’s a very scary and totally unpredictable place. It’s the luck of the draw out there. It’s so wild and so random. That’s certainly what I told her,” Hansen recalled.

“Once you’re off the main base, you are not safe. If you’re travelling with Canadian soldiers or any soldiers in that country, you are a target. If you’re travelling by yourself, you are a target.”

Hansen said Lang wanted to go to Afghanistan because she believed it was the most important story around for Canadian journalists.

“She was … just a really smart and serious journalist,” said Hansen, adding that, “I’m sure Michelle wanted to do the best job she could under the travel restrictions you face there. It takes energy just to get up every morning and get into the back of one of those LAVs [armoured troop carriers] because it’s such a dangerous country.”

Hansen said it’s difficult for reporters to do their job without putting themselves at risk. “And you’re with Canadian soldiers who do it every single day.”

Dennis Skulsky, president and CEO of Canwest Publishing, said: “Our thoughts and prayers go out to Michelle’s fiance Michael and her beloved parents.”