Random News Reporters Who Were Kidnapped And Held Hostage (20 items)

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  (#1) Richard Engel

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  Richard Engel is an American journalist and foreign correspondent who works for NBC News. On December 13, 2012, Richard Engel and his crew were dragged from their car in Syria. Throughout their capture, they were moved to various locations and psychologically tortured.

  Held for a total of five days, it is still uncertain why they were taken and who was responsible. 
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  (#2) Dimitar Kenarov (Crimea, 2014)

  Dimitar Kenarov is a freelance journalist who has written publications in American and European media. On March 6, 2014, it was reported that Kenarov was accosted by masked men while in Crimea's Simferopol. The incident happened while he was sitting in a restaurant taking photos with his mobile phone.

  Marked, armed men entered and put a gun to his head. They proceeded to take his phone, his friend's camera equipment and then sped off in an unmarked van.
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  (#3) Gregorio Jiménez De La Cruz (Veracruz, 2014)

  Gregorio Jiménez De La Cruz was a Mexican journalist who was taken on February 5, 2014. His remains were soon found along with those of two others in the municipality of Las Choapas in Veracruz. De La Cruz covered crime and security for the newspapers Notisur and Liberal del Sur, which recently included local abductions and aggression towards migrants.

  The authorities determined that De La Cruz's neighbor, Teresa de Jesús Hernandez Cruz, paid off several hitmen to eliminate the journalist.
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  (#4) James Foley

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  On November 22, 2012, James Foley was taken by unidentified gunmen in northern Syria. An American freelance war reporter, Foley was no stranger to being grabbed, as he was held captive a year prior by pro-Gaddafi forces in Libya. 

  In August of 2014, ISIS released a video of fighters removing the head of a man who has been identified as Foley.

   
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  (#5) Tyler Hicks

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  Tyler Hicks is a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photographer. On March 15, 2011, Hicks and three other journalists were taken in Eastern Libya by pro-Gaddafi forces while en-route to Benghazi. Pulled from their car, the Beirut bureau chief Anthony Shadid, reporter Stephen Farrell, and photographer Lynsey Addario all fled the scene only to be captured in a nearby house. 

  The four of them were bound, gagged, interrogated, and beaten for a handful of days before finally being released.
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  (#6) Euna Lee And Laura Ling (North Korea, 2009)

  In late March 2009, North Korea announced it had detained two American journalists for illegally entering the country. Weeks later, they officially announced that Laura Ling and fellow journalist Euna Lee were the ones detained. The reason for this action was their failed attempt at filming refugees along the North Korean border with China.

  The two were sentenced to 12 years in a labor prison for their unauthorized entry into North Korea, along with other unspecified hostile acts. The two were finally released in August of that year after former US President Bill Clinton made an unannounced visit to the country. 

  A year later, Laura Ling and her sister Lisa co-wrote the memoir Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home.

   

   
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  (#7) Anhar Kochneva (Syria, 2012)

  Anhar Kochneva is a Ukrainian journalist who was known for strongly criticizing the Syrian opposition. In October of 2012, she was traveling from Damascus to the Syrian coast when she was taken by a group of terrorists calling themselves the "Free Syrian Army."

  Kochneva spent a total of five months in captivity before executing a successful escape back to Damascus. 
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  (#8) Amanda Lindhout

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  In August of 2008, Amanda Lindhout was taken near Mogadishu, Somalia. She and her photojournalist Nigel Brennan were held for 460 days. On November 25, 2009, the two were released following receipt of ransom payments paid by their families. 

  After being released, Amanda Lindhout has been pursuing a philanthropic career instead of journalism. In 2014, Lindhout released her book, A House in the Sky: A Memoir, which became a New York Times bestseller and recounts her experience in Somalia.
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  (#9) Mellissa Fung

  Mellissa Fung is a Canadian journalist with CBC News. In 2008, she was on assignment in Afghanistan when she was taken by armed men while on her way to a refugee camp near Kabul. Fung was blindfolded and chained up inside a tiny dark cave. An Islamist group called Hizb-e-Islami was responsible for her disappearance, and they were later detained. 

  Fung was released 28 days later and has authored a book called Under an Afghan Sky that tells of her experiences during those few weeks.
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  (#10) Nick Greyling (Nigeria, 2010)

  Nick Greyling is a sound engineer who works for South Africa's M-Net SuperSport satellite channel. In 2010, he was taken by armed men in the Niger Delta oil region along with cameraman Alexander Effiong and sports commentator Bowie Attamah. 

  The day following their kidnapping, Effiong managed to escape safely back to Lagos. On the fifth day, Greyling and Attamah were both released per negotiations with South African officials. These types of occurrences are common in the Niger Delta with ransom being their ultimate goals. 
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  (#11) Hervé Ghesquierè And Stéphane Taponier (Afghanistan, 2009-2011)

  In December 2009, French journalists Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier were taken at a roadblock 40 miles east of Kabul while filming. The two men were held captive for a total of 18 months, being locked up for 23 hours and 45 minutes a day.

  They were supplied with a short toilet break every morning and night. The Taliban kept them inside, with the barred windows covered allowing little to no sunlight in. 

  The two would spend their time exercising and trying not to lose their grip due to the claustrophobia and solitude. The two were never beaten or threatened, and were finally freed in exchange for insurgent fighters in June of 2011. 
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  (#12) Jill Carroll

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  Jill Carroll is a former American journalist who wrote for the Christian Science Monitor. On January 7, 2006, Carroll was on her way to Baghdad to interview a Sunni politician named Adnan al-Dulaimi. Soon after finding him not at his office, Carroll and crew were accosted by masked gunmen. Her driver escaped, and her interpreter was shot. They took Jill Carroll from the car and kept her captive.

  Carroll was finally released on March 30, 2006. In 2008, Carroll put her journalism days behind her and became a firefighter.
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  (#13) Terry A. Anderson

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  Terry Anderson was an American journalist who reported for The Associated Press. On March 16, 1985, he was taken in Beirut. For six years and nine months, he was held captive by Hezbollah Shiite Muslims - who were supported by Iran in retaliation for Israel's use of US weapons and aid in its 1982-1983 strikes against Muslim targets in Lebanon.

  He was released in 1991, making him the longest-held American hostage captured in the effort to drive US forces from Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. 
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  (#14) Karl Penhaul (Venezuela, 2014)

  On February 19, 2014, CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul was on the ground in Venezuela covering the protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Tensions had already been high as there were already numerous fatalities on the ground. 

  Reporting the story also proved difficult as Penhaul and crew were targeted by a group of armed men on motorcycles. Penhaul recalls: "The next thing I knew, I was staring down the barrel of a chrome-plated nine-millimeter pistol and three armed men then proceeded to rob our crew of all the camera gear, all the transition gear as well." They later learned those were most likely plain-clothed cops.
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  (#15) Phil Sands (Baghdad, 2005)

  In January of 2005, British freelance journalist Phil Sands was taken and held for five days in Baghdad. His car was ambushed while he was on assignment. During these five days, there were beatings and threats. One of his Sunni attackers swore he'd be beheaded if he was a soldier.

  On the fifth day, a chance raid by American soldiers found Sands alive and well. He was rescued and returned home. Up until that point, no one knew he was missing.
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  (#16) Judith Spiegel (Yemen, 2013)

  In June of 2013, freelance Dutch journalist Judith Spiegel was taken - along with her husband Boudewijn Berendsen - their home in Sana'a, Yemen. During their captivity, a video was released depicting Spiegel and Berendsen in poor health pleading with families and their government to do whatever is necessary to release them.

  While no one has claimed responsibility for this, kidnappings such as these are carried out by powerful tribes in Yemen with the purpose of using foreign journalists as bargaining chips in disputes with the central government.  

  On December 11, 2013, the two were freed and headed back to Amsterdam. 
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  (#17) Florence Aubenas

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  Florence Aubenas is a French journalist who was taken along with her translator Hussein Hanoun Al-Saadi in Iraq in January of 2005. On March 1, a video was released that showed Aubenas in bad health, pleading for help.

  After over 150 days of being bound and blindfolded in a tiny cellar, both Florence and her translator Hussein were released in June of 2005.
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  (#18) John Martinkus

  In October 2004, Australian journalist John Martinkus was on assignment in Baghdad. Upon leaving his hotel, which was situated right across the street from the Australian Embassy, his car was ambushed and Martinkus was taken by Sunni insurgents.

  A day later, he was released after his kidnappers verified his identity. 
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  (#19) Maria Zone (New York, 2000)

  Maria Zone was a producer for Court TV in October 2000. During an interview with convict Kenneth Kimes, she was taken and held for more than four hours inside the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. Kimes was in prison for dispatching a New York City millionaire and held Zone as his prisoner with a pen to her neck. 

  After four hours, the prison negotiators were able to talk Mr. Kimes down, and Maria Zone was released unharmed. 
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  (#20) Jomana Karadsheh (Lybia, 2011)

  In August 2011, dozens of journalists were held captive in the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh was one of the many reporters confined to the building. Karadsheh was key to the ultimate release of the captives.

  She explained that she gained rapport with one of the kinder captors and made him sympathetic to her by explaining how much she missed her family. The insurgent eventually arranged to release the journalists.

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