The story of the Syrian conflict is uploaded by courageous citizens but it is also documented by a knot of determined foreign journalists, many of them freelancers. And now a decision by an influential British newspaper to refuse all work out of Syria offered by freelancers raises questions of liability, responsibility and also of getting critical information out. Today we look at the implications.

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Photojournalist, Rick Findler

Marie Colvin's devotion to her job as war correspondent cost her everything. From Syria to Afghanistan to Chechnya and beyond, she spent more than 20 years covering the world's upheaval for Britain's Sunday Times newspaper. She was a tireless advocate for fearless, on-the-ground reporting in conflict zones. Ms. Colvin was killed on the job last year during an attack in the Syrian city of Homs.

Our next guest also wants to bear witness to society at its breaking points. But unlike Marie Colvin, he's a freelancer, and that has become an unexpected hurdle for him.

Rick Findler is a photojournalist and he was in our studio in London England.

We requested an interview with Graham Paterson, deputy foreign editor at the Sunday Times of London. He declined our invitation.

We did however receive a statement from the Sunday Times' parent company News International about the paper's policy of hiring freelance photographers in Syria.

It reads:

The Sunday Times Foreign Desk does not believe that freelancers, many of whom have had no training and have no insurance or back-up, are the best people to place on the front line during a brutal conflict.

Panel: Bruno Stevens, Romayne Smith Fullerton & Tony Burman

As media budgets collapsed over the years, one consequence was fewer foreign bureaus and greater reliance on freelancers. What's more, a number of correspondents first learn their skills as freelancers. A world without reporters-for-hire is likely going to be a world even more poorly understood.

With more on this, we were joined by three guests.

Bruno Stevens is a freelance photojournalist in Brussels, Belgium.

Romayne Smith Fullerton teaches in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. She is also the ethics editor at the online journalism magazine, J-Source. She was in St. Mary's Ontario.

And Tony Burman is the former head of Al Jazeera English and CBC News. He's currently a research chair at Ryerson University's school of Journalism. He was was in our Toronto studio.

This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal and Vanessa Greco.

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