Name Miguel Moreno | Role Correspondent | |
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Died May 24, 2000, Sierra Leone | ||
GNS: Spain Miguel
Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora (June 21, 1967 – May 24, 2000) was a Spanish cameraman and war correspondent, working for Associated Press.
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After a successful career as a corporate lawyer in Barcelona, Spain, Miguel became a freelance war correspondent first in Sarajevo and later, an award winning cameraman for AP Television.
Leaving behind his career as a corporate lawyer in Spain, Miguel became a freelance war correspondent in Sarajevo and later in Kosovo, where he was one of the few Western cameraman to stay in Pristina during the Nato air campaign. His images of Albanians being herded on to railway carriages changed our understanding of what was happening in Kosovo.
After that, he went to Grozny (Chechnya). His pictures from Chechnya were the people of Grozny's only window to the world. He also was in Congo, Liberia, Ruanda, Sudan and Sierra Leone. However, as he wrote himself, he experienced the most dangerous moments of his life in Chechnya. Miguel's images were some of the few informative documents registered by an international agency in that conflict.
Miguel was awarded as cameraman of the year by the Royal Television Society in 2000, recognizing its outstanding job in conflict areas.
Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora and Reuters Correspondent Kurt Schork were shot to death in an ambush to a Sierra Leone Army (SLA) convoy by the fighters of the Revolutionary United Front on May 24, 2000. In the attack four SLA soldiers were killed and two other journalists, South African cameraman Mark Chisholm and Greek photographer Yannis Behrakis, were injured.
Miguel, 32, was "a big man — big of heart," in the words of AP photographer Santiago Lyon.
From Miguel's Mother
“Miguel was a truly extraordinary person, as a son, a brother, as everything. Miguel fought all his life for his ideals and has died for them. He lived the stories he covered, because he felt his mission was to give voice to those who did not have one”. “I am filled with overwhelming sadness and grief, but in the end I find solace in the fact that Miguel was doing the job he loved and died doing the work he felt ordained for”.