By Brigitte L. Nacos
Following the release of two Fox News journalists from their captivity in Gaza yesterday, Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz writes today under the headline "Journalism's" Rising Risk Factor" about the indeed increasingly dangerous predicament of members of the fourth estate who report on wars and other conflicts. This risk is backed up by grim numbers in another Washington Post article by Doug Struck.The case of the two Fox News journalists illustrates as well how difficult it is for news organizations to report on kidnapped colleagues. Whether to devote a great deal or not an extraordinary amount of coverage to such hostage situations is indeed an important question. But to find the right answer is equally as difficult in all hostage cases. When terrorists take hostages, they want publicity and the opportunity to send some kind of message. And when they capture members of the press, they hope for special media attention.
The captivity of reporter Jill Carroll of the Christian Science Monitor in Iraq triggered massive news coverage--especially in the United States and in Iraq. This news magnified certainly the message that some obscure group can kidnap Americans in Iraq in spite of the strong American military presence. It is very possible that the captors held Carroll for such a long time precisely because the case received so much media attention.
The reporting about the two Fox News reporters was far more subdued and led to the suspicion that the rest of the news media simply do not like this network. But as Kurtz reveals, the media actually followed requests by the Fox News management. To be sure, when the captors released a video-tape of their hostages, this was news. But when the news media agreed to an overall low-key coverage, they made the right decision and may have helped to shorten the captivity of Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig.
Comments