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When the 1st Western photojournalists covering the strife in Libya died yesterday, the world found out about it through Facebook and Twitter. Now the Facebook page of one of the victims has become a defacto memorial for the net community to grieve and honour his death.

Oscar-nominated snapper and filmmaker, Tim Hetherington, 40, and Pulitzer Prize-nominated Getty Pictures photojournalist Chris Hondros, 41, died by a mortar attack in the encircled Libyan town of Misrata. Two other photographers, Guy Martin and Michael Brown were seriously hurt in the same shelling. Martin remains in a vital condition and Brown's wounds are reported not to be life-endangering.

Over the passage of the day, Tim Hetherington's Facebook page became a spur of the moment memorial, with lots of condolences to his folks and tributes to his work and memory. Mate and commenter Lorena Turner's message summarises the thoughts of the photography community : "Let's celebrate his contribution to our appreciation of war and the complicated interactions within it. Tim's loss will be felt by everybody with an eye and mind that's engaged in the world."

1st mention of Hetherington and Hondros's deaths became known around 9:30am PST thru Facebook updates by fellow paparazzo Andre Liohn, who was with Hetherington in a Misrata infirmary. "Sad stories Tim Hetherington died in Misrata now when covering the trenches. Chris Hondros is in a serious status," wrote Liohn.

Within mins, in pursuit of more information, buddies and co-workers had shared and tweeted Liohn's words. All was hoping that the news was unsound, a wayward rumor, a mistake or even a sick joke any fact aside from Hetherington's passing. At the same time, antagonistic statements about whether Hondros was alive or not circulated.

Tweeting slowed. Short on confirmed info, admirers and best friends alike, withdrew their fingertips from keyboards and asked if Hetherington's family had been informed. If he wasn't dead, this appears to have been an injurious rumour to avoid. If he had been killed then they as Twitter and Facebook users were messengers of Hetherington's death notice. Social networking demonstrated both its strength to spread info and its constraints in corroborating fact.