Toenemend aantal journalisten in Syrië ontvoerd, vermoord

Eerst wat getallen:

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 30 journalists are being held and 52 have been killed since Syria’s civil war began in early 2011. The group also has documented at least 24 other journalists who disappeared earlier this year but are now safe.

Ter vergelijking:

In Iraq, 150 journalists were killed between the U.S. invasion in 2003 and the departure of American troops in 2011 — a rate similar to the CPJ’s figures for Syria — but the numbers of abducted journalists was smaller.

Wie erachter zit:

Jihadi groups are believed responsible for most kidnappings since the summer, but government-backed militias, criminal gangs and rebels affiliated with the Western-backed Free Syrian Army also have been involved with various motives.

Wat je als ontvoerde journalist kunt verwachten (als je het überhaupt overleeft):

In published accounts of their captivity, some freed journalists wrote of trusted rebels and fixers who betrayed them, and of hard-core Islamic fighters who psychologically and physically tortured them.

“At first they kept accusing me of being a CIA agent, and in order to break me pretended to execute me four times. At the end it was all about money,” said Jonathan Alpeyrie, a French-American photographer held in northern Syria for 81 days by Islamic rebels until a benefactor paid $450,000 on his behalf.

Open artikel