The Prague Post
http://www.aaaradiotaxi.cz/index.php?xSET=lang&xLANG=2
July 20th, 2008
Endowment Fund     Book of Lists ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Real Estate Prague Prague Rentals Prague Apartments Prague Art & Antiques

Home » Archives » News

RFE/RL reporter released in Iraq

Correspondent's captors demanded $100,000 ransom

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
November 7th, 2007 issue

A Baghdad correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was freed 10 days after she was kidnapped while on her way to an interview at the Environment Ministry.
Little has been released about how Jumana al-Obaidi, 29, was taken hostage Oct. 22, but RFE/RL states in a press release that her driver, a young, recently married man, was shot and killed. His body was found in the street.
RFE/RL spokeswoman Sonia Winter says she has no further information about the incident.
Hajar Smouni, the Paris-based head of the Middle East desk at Reporters Without Borders, says RFE/RL “is not very talkative about the issue” in part because of pressure from al-Obaidi’s family, who asked that the abduction not be publicized.
Smouni did say, however, that an RWB contact in Iraq reported that al-Obaidi’s captors demanded a $100,000 ransom. Smouni did not know if it was paid, and Winter says RFE/RL has a policy of not paying ransoms.
This choice to keep a low profile appears to be the safe one, Smouni says. “When the kidnapping is all about money … it’s better to keep a low profile,” she says. “I think that [al-Obaidi’s kidnapping] was just about money.”
Often captors think a journalist’s company will pay ransom, and sometimes they are right. If the company is unwilling to pay, the family might do so. “There is a market for hostages in Iraq. It has become a very lucrative activity,” Smouni says.
Since the U.S.-led March 2003 invasion of Iraq, 206 media professionals have been killed, she says. According to RWB’s numbers, this figure is higher than the number of journalists killed in the Vietnam War or in World War II. “We’ve never had such figures before,” she says.
The numbers are driven by what Smouni says is the relatively new practice of targeting journalists.
Aside from the money to be made on the hostage market, journalists are perceived as being supportive of the Iraqi government and of having the power to be heard, Smouni says. More than 90 percent of reporters killed in Iraq have been Iraqi. The foreign press has largely left the country or pays local correspondents to do reporting, she says.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com


Other articles in News (7/11/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Book of Lists

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.