Photojournalist and Oscar nominee Tim Hetherington killed in Libya

OSCAR NOMINATED FILM DIRECTOR and photojournalist Tim Hetherington, 40, has been killed in Libya and three other journalists wounded.

Two of them, Chris Hondros and Guy Martin, have been seriously injured, according to the New York Times.

Their injuries are understood to be so severe as to mean they cannot be evacuated yet, despite offers from the International Organisation for Migration, which has been organising the evacuation of migrant workers from the besieged city.

The fourth man, photographer Michael Christopher Brown, suffered non-life threatening shrapnel injuries in the attack.

The four were reportedly struck close to the front lines in Misrata, which has been the scene of heavy fighting between pro- and anti-Gaddafi forces for weeks.

Hetherington, a UK and US citizen, had received the Oscar nomination for his film Restrepo, which focused on US soldier’s experiences in Afghanistan. He was a contributor to Vanity Fair, which said this evening that its staff was in mourning. Hetherington had tweeted yesterday about the “indiscriminate shelling” of Gaddafi’s forces in Misrata.

The Committee to Protect Journalist says that two other journalists have been killed in Libya this year: Mohammed al-Nabbous, who founded the online Libya Al-Hurra TV, and Ali Hassan al-Jaber, a cameraman with Al Jazeera.

Earlier today, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay said that journalists “have been suffering a terrible toll in terms of assaults, arbitrary detentions and expulsions” while covering events in the Middle East and North Africa. Around 16 journalists are missing in Libya and several others have already been arrested and released by pro-Gaddafi forces.

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