© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Foreign journalists face risk of kidnapping, death in Syria

Manu Brabo
/
Associated Press

Syria has been an extremely dangerous place for reporters and photographers to work. The regime of President Bashar al-Assad regime has banned foreign journalists. Now, they face dangers from all sides, including desperate rebels and hostile Islamist militants.

Conditions have deteriorated in 2013, and could get even worse. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to authorize President Barack Obama to launch military strikes in Syria because of the regime’s apparent use of chemical weapons. The full Senate will consider the resolution next week. 

Obama joined world leaders in northern Russia on Thursday for the Group of Twenty (G20) talks on international issues. The debate over military strikes in Syria will likely overshadow the summit, particularly because Russia is selling weapons to the regime and strongly opposes western military intervention. 

This week's Global Journalist focused on the impact Syria is having on U.S. relations with Russia, and on a photojournalist who was abducted by Islamist rebels near Damascus.

Panelists:

First half

Jonathan Alpeyrie, photojournalist who was abducted in Syria

Second half

Nikolas K. Gvosdev, senior editor at The National Interest magazine, and a professor of national-security studies at the U.S. Naval War College

Ronald G. Suny, CharlsTilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History at the University of Michigan