It’s hard to believe someone would risk death over a lie.
The author of the article admits that people of other faiths and beliefs have martyred themselves for an idea, so the Christian martyrs are not unique in that act, unto itself.
However, early Christian martyrs died not in protest, fight, self-defense, or that of another, or other worldly purpose. I can't think of any similar purpose of facing death; even a Buddhist who pours gasoline on himself to protest some injustice acts in self-interest and in belief of a next life. Every martyred Apostle (all but John, who suffered similarly) died for his Lord and not for himself.
Indeed, a tremendous schism in the next generation early Church regarding accepting back into the community of faith those who had taken the oath to Caesar in exchange for their lives. The utter, total belief that martyrdom is for God and nothing or no one else is unique to the faith God himself created by the same act, only for us.
People WILL die for a lie.
But they won’t allow themselves to be killed for a report they repeatedly asserted was true, if they themselves made it up.