Do journalists kidnapped abroad receive different international treatment than tourists or even politicians? If so, should they? Robert Fowler believes that journalists get preferential treatment, and feels that this is wrong. Reflecting back on the events leading up to his abduction, Fowler recounted a prophetic conversation he had with a prominent Canadian reporter. A few […]
Lindsay Hanna
5. Mellisa Fung: Afghan abduction
CBC journalist Mellissa Fung was abducted in Kabul, Afghanistan on October 12, 2008, almost two months before Robert Fowler. But the Canadian public wouldn’t hear a whisper of her ordeal until her release. Information surrounding Fung’s disappearance was subjected to a full and complete international media blackout. Fung was stationed at the NATO military base in Kandahar […]
4. Robert Fowler: catch and release
On December 14, 2008, Robert Fowler’s life took a terrifying turn. The long-serving Canadian diplomat and then-United Nations special envoy to Niger was traveling through the African country when he and his aide were taken hostage. Fowler had arrived in Niger with fellow Canadian diplomat Louis Guay just a few days earlier. They were there […]
3. Blackouts: a brief history
Media blackouts have historically been used by governments to control the flow of information and buttress their power. In times of conflict, countries have strategically released or concealed information to advance a particular agenda. Early 20th century examples of such blackouts include the Western media’s censorship of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam […]
2. Policies on blackout requests
In Canada, there is no blanket policy for dealing with blackout requests in hostage takings. It is up to each individual news outlet to decide whether or not to honour a news embargo. For the most part, blackouts are assessed on a case-by-case basis. The Canadian Press Stylebook offers writers and editors a broad guideline for covering […]
1. Media blackouts explained
Consider the following scenario: a 25-year-old woman is crossing a busy intersection when a driver, distracted by a buzzing cellphone, runs the red light and hits her. The woman is declared dead on the scene.A journalist sitting in a news organization’s radio room overhears the police transmission of the accident and starts writing a web […]
The ethics of media blackouts: two kidnappings
Case study by Brigitte Noël, Shannon Busta, Robert Parker and Paige Ellis December, 2012 Introduction In December 2008, Robert Fowler, a Canadian diplomat, and his aide were abducted while on a United Nations mission in West Africa. Their case was not an isolated incident. CBC reporter Mellissa Fung was kidnapped while on assignment in Afghanistan […]
10. Epilogue
What would you have chosen to do as a journalist in this situation? Because this case study is intended primarily as a teaching resource, a password is required to view the epilogue. The purpose is to encourage readers to pause and think about how they would resolve the difficulty, before learning how the journalist(s) involved […]
9. The decision-making point
Gans and Lee waited until they were finished shooting before making their final decision as to whether or not to include footage of the child. The mother’s decision was clear: She was comfortable telling her daughter’s story, and having her daughter’s image be a part of that storytelling process. “I knew [it] was important was […]
8. Public interest vs. personal harm
Public Interest If as Kristof suggests, the only way to make people care about a critical issue is to reveal their identity, does this justify exposing the individual to any degree of harm? In 2003 Linda M. Richter wrote an article about the epidemic of infant rape in South Africa. She is an academic with […]