Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow and colleagues have led tributes to senior foreign affairs producer Sarah Corp, behind the programme’s coverage of the conflicts in Libya, Egypt, and Iraq, who has died from cancer aged 41.
“You may not have seen her on screen,” said Snow in a special four-minute broadcast shown last night after the news. “But she was ever present behind the camera on most of our big foreign reports.”
He added: “If Channel 4 News’ foreign coverage stands out, it is in very strong measure down to the work of Sarah Corp.
“From 9/11 onwards Sarah was there. She was there for the invasion of Iraq. She came in with British forces from Kuwait. She was there for the Haiti earthquake, a searing experience.”
Presenter Krishnan Guru-Murphy described Corp as “an irreplaceable presence in so many parts of the world from which we reported”. He said: “It’s been a deeply personal loss for us here on the programme but it’s a serious loss too, to our journalism”.
International editor Lindsey Hilsum, who worked with Corp on reports from the frontline as the Arab Spring revolt took hold in Libya, said Corp “was the one who held us all together”.
She said: “In Libya, at the beginning of the revolution, we would go up to the frontline every day. I always wanted to push ahead and go a little but further but a little part of me didn’t want to because I was afraid. Sarah was the person who always said ‘no, we go this far and no further’.
“At the same time as understanding the story – she was highly intellectual – Sarah was also very practical. She made sure that we had something to eat, somewhere to sleep; even if it was a burned out building.”
She added: “When I would always be thinking about what I’m doing today – ‘what’s the story today?’ – she was one step ahead. She was thinking ‘what’s the story tomorrow?’. That’s why she was the most extraordinary producer and the most extraordinary friend.”
Cameraman and editor Ray Queally said “What Sara brought to this game was not just top notch professionalism but also a real humanity.
“She cared about people and you knew she had your back, you knew she was looking out for you and when the day finished, when all that stress was taken off your shoulders, you would sit down a with a glass of wine (…) and over dinner you would relax and talk.
“She was just a fantastic travelling companion. A kind, sympathetic and compassionate human being.”
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