The Kidnapping of Journalists

Reporting from High-Risk Conflict Zones

Robert G. Picard, Hannah Storm

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781838609450
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sprachen & Linguistik
• Subtopic: Journalismus

The vulnerability of journalists to kidnappings was starkly illustrated by the killing of James Foley and Steven Sotloff by Islamic militants in 2014. Their murder underscored the risks taken by journalists and news organisations trying to cover developments in dangerous regions of the world and has forced news enterprises to more clearly prepare for and confront issues of safety. This book explores the complex organisational issues surrounding the capture or kidnapping of journalists in areas of conflict and risk. It explores how journalists 'becoming news' is covered and the implications of that coverage, how news organisations prepare for and respond to such events, and how kidnapping and ransom insurers, victim recovery firms, journalists' families, and governments influence the actions of news enterprises. It considers how and why journalists are kidnapped, how employers and journalists' organisations respond to kidnappings and why freelancers are particularly at risk as well as suggesting best practices for preventing and responding to kidnappings.

1

Journalists are Vulnerable Targets

The practice of journalism is increasingly dangerous and attacks on journalists continue unabated. A particularly troublesome feature of this violence is that a rising number of journalists are being kidnapped for ransom or held as hostages. This growing global problem threatens the practice of journalism and the ability of news media to fully inform the public about events occurring in the world.

Journalists and media workers are highly vulnerable to kidnappings because they often work in dangerous locations, seek access to adversaries involved in conflicts, and may have to rely on shadowy contacts and sources in carrying out their work. Just how vulnerable journalists are in kidnap scenarios was starkly illustrated by the executions of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, and Kenji Goto by Islamic militants in 2014 and 2015. Their killings represented an escalation of the price paid by journalists and news organisations trying to cover developments in locations of crisis and conflict around the world.

This book explores the challenges faced by news organisations in attempting to protect journalists, in responding to kidnappings of their journalists, and in covering abductions of one of their own. It explores the familial, governmental, and economic influences on news organisations during kidnappings and lays out some good practices for avoiding, preparing for, and responding to the horror of a kidnapping. The intent of this volume is to increase the understanding of the environment in which kidnappings and their responses occur, the issues they pose, and the challenges that the journalism community encounters as it responds to these abductions. This publication attempts to improve journalists’ and news executives’ understanding by exploring what happens when news organisations and other parties involved must react to the kidnapping of journalists.

The capture and detention of journalists in conflict zones by combatants has long been an unwelcome consequence of pursuing stories during wars and conflicts. These detentions sometimes result in assaults on journalists, but the journalists are typically released within a relatively short time. In recent decades, however, there has been an increase in the number of journalists kidnapped for exploitation as hostages or for ransom. These are highly worrisome because these kidnappings sometimes continue for years, result in the deliberate killings of journalists, and tend to halt – or at the very least hinder – on-the-ground coverage of regions where they occur by reducing the willingness and ability of news organisations to send reporters to the areas.

Kidnapping of journalists itself is not a new phenomenon and has been a concern for decades, but a sharp rise in the number of kidnappings and the deliberate killing of hostage journalists have made the phenomenon particularly significant today. The kidnapping issue first gained considerable attention with the widespread kidnapping of Western journalists covering Lebanon in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the captivity of the Associated Press’s Terry Anderson, the Guardian’s David Hirst, and ABC News’s Charles Glass. Later conflicts in Arab countries led to kidnappings including that of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was detained and beheaded in Pakistan in 2002, and Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll, who was held for two months in Iraq in 2006.

Western journalists, however, are not the only kidnap targets, though they tend to get higher international media coverage. Hundreds of others from around the world have been held, attacked, taken hostage, and killed in the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. In 2014 alone, 119 professional journalists and eight citizen journalists were kidnapped (up from 87 in 2013), according to Reporters Sans Frontières, an organisation that tracks abuses against journalists. Ukraine, Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Mexico were the locations for most of the abductions and 90 per cent involved domestic reporters while only 10 per cent involved foreign reporters.¹

The kidnappings are one part of the increasing overall violence against journalists worldwide. Almost 1,500 journalists and news media workers died in the course of their work between 2004 and 2014, according to a recent report by the International News Safety Institute.² More than 800 were killed in locations not caught up in warfare, and the majority were local journalists working in countries where the absence of a rule of law, the pervasive presence of corrupt gangs, officials, and business people, and an almost over-riding impunity gives a green light to those who wish to silence journalists. The attacks are designed to threaten and intimidate those who seek to bear witness and hold the powerful to account in nations where the development of independent local journalism is now challenging the power of authoritarian leaders and economic elites.

Journalists are jeopardised when they work, travel, or live in locations in which civil authority is absent, rule of law is lacking, or human rights are disregarded. Because of the journalistic principles of bearing witness to events and seeking multiple views of conflicts, many journalists travelling and working in high-risk conflict zones seek out differing perspectives, which may offend opposing parties. In addition, the nature of their work may mean they need to seek assistance in getting to hard-to-reach locations to understand developments and gain interviews with figures in conflicts. Sometimes the only way to do this is to put their trust in and work with mysterious and unknown figures whose motives are not always clear.

These issues put journalists in perilous positions. Their presence is often unwelcome. They may be perceived as aligned with opponents and, in some cases, they are suspected of being spies. This view is often incorrect, but also viable, because security services of many states have used journalism as a cover for their agents.

Although this book is concerned with the kidnapping of journalists for ransom or as hostages, some of the safety and organisational issues involved also appear in other types of capture and killing of journalists, so it is important to understand how they differ and why broad safety training and preparation of different potential organisational responses are necessary.

One type of capture involves journalists detained or imprisoned by combatants in conflict zones. These sometimes result in assaults on and injuries to journalists, but typically do not involve holding journalists hostage for ransom or other purposes. In most cases this type of captivity involves journalists being seized and interrogated by combatants, but they tend to be released within a relatively short time period once their identities are established or outside pressures are applied to obtain their release. Examples of this type of seizure include:

•A group of journalists from CBS News, BuzzFeed and Sky News were detained as they travelled to the Ukrainian city of Slavyansk in early 2014. The group was stopped by militants at a checkpoint, blindfolded, and then interrogated during their ordeal; one of the CBS crew members was beaten.

•Guardian journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad was detained in the Libyan town of Sabratha in February 2011 by the country’s army. Brazilian journalist Andrei Netto of O Estado de Sao Paulo was detained with him, but released on 10 March. Abdul-Ahad was released on 16 March, after the Turkish government stepped in and Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger flew to Libya to help win his release.

•Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye were imprisoned in Ethiopia for more than 400 days after they were charged and found guilty of entering the country illegally and supporting a rebel group because of their contacts with the Ogaden National Liberation Front. The journalists maintained that they were only doing their job and trying to investigate the activities of a Swedish oil company active in the region.

This type of capture is often given significant attention by news safety organisations and gains prominent news coverage in order to pressure the combatants involved to release the journalists. The challenges created by such detentions were among the precipitating reasons for the creation of training programmes for journalists entering conflict zones and have led many large international news organisations to establish protective internal policies related to the deployment of personnel in conflict zones.

Another related phenomenon is the deliberate abduction and killing of journalists by groups and individuals to silence specific media workers or to stop their coverage. In these cases perpetrators do not make demands for their safe release, but use the killings as a warning to other journalists. These types of kidnappings include:

•The body of Mexican journalist Jorge Torres Palacios was found in June 2014 four days after he was kidnapped near his home in Acapulco. A journalist for 20 years, he wrote a regular column in El Dictamen, often exposing police abuses and corruption.

•French journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon were kidnapped and killed in Mali in November 2013 after interviewing a leader of a separatist group in Kidal for Radio France Internationale.

•Ayham Mostafa Ghazzoul, a journalist for the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, died in 2010 under torture after being detained four days earlier along with his colleagues who documented human rights abused by the Assad regime.

This type of danger is most often found in nations where high levels of lawlessness exist or where governments choose not to – or cannot – act against perpetrators. Journalists and news organisations have tended to respond to such killings with condemnation, provision of safety training for journalists entering these environments, or by reducing news coverage.

A third category of attacks on reporters in combat zones occurs when journalists are killed in crossfire or as the result of genuine mistakes or wilful indifference by combatants. Examples of this type of journalistic casualty include:

•Germain Kennedy Mumbere Muliwavyo from Radio Télévision Muungano, who was shot and killed in February 2014 in Oïcha, Democratic Republic of the Congo. He had been riding in a Congolese military vehicle with a number of other journalists when it was attacked by a rebel group operating in the eastern part of the country.

•Mayada Ashraf, a journalist for Al-Dustour, was shot and killed in Cairo, Egypt, in March 2014, while covering clashes between security forces and the Muslim Brotherhood protesters in eastern Cairo’s Ain Shams area.

News organisations and journalists can do little to prevent such attacks, but can be trained to avoid or mitigate such risks or deploy only in areas where the risks for such dangers are lower.

The fourth type of danger for journalists in regions of conflict – kidnapping for ransom or hostage – differs from the three previous types of attacks because it presents a range of challenges well beyond those of the other types of attacks. Journalists in cases of kidnapping for ransom and hostage have been deliberately targeted or become kidnap victims after they were detained by combatants in conflict zones. The growing use of journalists as hostages to pressure their governments and to obtain ransoms is creating significant safety challenges and leading to a reduction of insightful coverage of developments in regions in which they occur.

The most dangerous countries for journalists, 2004–14

1. Iraq

2. Philippines

3. Pakistan

4. Mexico

5. India

6. Somalia

7. Syria

8. Iran

9. Brazil

10. Russia

Source: International News Safety Institute

Growing concern in news organisations and governments

The problems of harassment, injury, and death of journalists in areas of conflict, the capture of reporters, the deliberate killing of media workers, and the holding of journalists for ransom have spawned efforts by organisations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Sans Frontières, the International News Safety Institute, and other media, governmental, and non-governmental organisations to bring attention to the need to protect journalists and to help them better understand how to improve their safety during hazardous and potentially hazardous reporting activities.

Most news organisations, however, do not have crisis management plans in place to respond to the kidnapping of their journalists and lack capabilities to respond to them. These deficiencies make it very hard for media organisations initially to respond to abductions. Larger, international news organisations often have basic plans in place, but little ability to rapidly recover kidnapped journalists. ‘You have protocols in place for death but with a kidnapping you don’t hold too many of the cards’, says the Associated Press’s Sandy MacIntyre.³ Preparation helps reduce the alarm, confusion, and organisational inertia that can be generated when a kidnapping occurs.

The rising dangers faced by journalists globally is leading to greater levels of concern and support for efforts to improve their safety and to hold accountable those who endanger, harm, hold, or kill journalists. Two significant actions calling attention to the issues occurred in 2015 involving the United Nations and news publishers. The UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for the protection of journalists in areas of armed conflict, the release of journalists held hostage, and urging governments to act against those who attack journalists.⁴ Concurrently, the Board of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) passed a resolution urging governments, international institutions, and the media industry to make journalists’ safety a priority and denounced the impunity surrounding the killing of journalists in many locations.⁵

Bringing the issues to the attention of governments and gaining public recognition of the responsibilities of these authorities to protect jou...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• About the Authors
• 1. Journalists are Vulnerable Targets
• 2. Relations with Governments during Kidnappings
• 3. Organisational Responses to Kidnappings
• 4. Experiencing Kidnapping
• 5. Coverage of Journalist Kidnappings
• 6. The Roles of Journalist Safety Organisations
• 7. Good Practices for Journalists and their Employers
• Appendix 1: Safety Training and Learning Resources
• Appendix 2: Crisis Support Organisations and Resources for Journalists and their Families
• Appendix 3: Selected Providers of Insurance and Consultancy
• Notes
• eCopyright