All of us who care about a free press can look to Colvin to remind us why it matters.

She told a BBC interviewer that the situation in Homs reminded her of the war in Bosnia; the siege of Srebrenica, where thousands of civilians were massacred; and the pledge afterward never to let such happen again.

“No one can understand how the international community can let this happen,” Colvin said of Syria on Tuesday.

A few hours later, she was gone, alongside a French photographer. But her legacy remains.