Kate Webb: War Correspondent

A New York Times article reminisces about Kate Webb, the NZ-born war correspondent who died of cancer in May 2007. Webb narrowly escaped death back in 1971, as a 28-year-old bureau chief for United Press International in Cambodia. Webb and five others were kidnapped by North Vietnamese soldiers and,after 23 days missing, were presumed dead. The six were eventually freed, nine days after Webb’s obituary was printed. NYT: “Another journalist might have parlayed three weeks of captivity into celebrity status. Webb got back to work instead. For the next three decades, she wrote for wire services from Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines and India, living outside the usual expat neighborhoods, learning the languages,outreporting many of her younger colleagues and using her own modest income to supplement the salaries of in-country wire-service staff.”

Kate Webb: 24 March 1943 – 13 May 2007