PressEthic

A British journalist is missing in Iraq. According to the Guardian, “Rory Carroll was last night missing after being kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad. Carroll, 33, an experienced foreign correspondent, had been conducting an interview in the city with a victim of Saddam Hussein's regime.”

What should the media do about that? The natural reaction is to talk a lot about it and mobilize public opinion. The Guardian has already issued a statement in Arabic, to raise the attention of Arab populations.

But that publicity has a drawback: it increases the value of the hostage for the terrorists. Therefore, they can ask for a bigger ransom. Worse, they can hold the hostage for a longer period of time, knowing it would give them more attention from the public.

Another problem has to do with the objectivity of the media. If the media does everything it can to obtain the liberation of the hostage, can it still be objective in covering the insurgency? How can they be critical of the terrorists if they know this can endanger the life of their colleague?

All those questions were raised in France, when three French journalists were held hostage in Iraq in 2004 and earlier this year. The fact that France was opposed to the invasion of the country did not seem to make much difference for the terrorists. They had specific demands, like the removal of a ban on headscarves in public schools.

Two of the journalists have been released after 3 months in custody. The third one spent more than five years in a cave. It is likely that big ransoms have been paid, although the government officially denies it.

The media talked a lot about the journalists during their detention. For example, their names were mentioned almost every night in the evening news. According to the former hostages, the terrorists heard about this buzz. They seemed to be pleased by it.

But the journalists were unable to determine precisely the effect of the mobilization of the media. Maybe it prevented them from being killed. Maybe it just increased the length of their detention.