By Frank Smyth/CPJ Senior Adviser for Journalist Security
With a chapter on Information Security by Danny O’Brien/CPJ Internet Advocacy Coordinator
About the Authors | Acknowledgments
Introduction: With CPJ Senior Journalist Security Adviser Frank Smyth
Because foreign journalists have been virtually banned from Syria during the uprising against Bashar al-Assad's regime, news coverage has relied heavily on citizen journalists and international reporters working with sources inside the country. Syrians who communicate with foreign news media run the risk of being threatened, detained, tortured, or even killed.
The guidance is hardly clear. At a Columbia University event
last week pegged to the release of the new CPJ
Journalist Security Guide, one journalism student said he and his classmates
are getting contradictory advice. Many J-school professors, he said, have encouraged
him and others to just get up, go overseas, and try to make it as a freelancer.
But the experienced journalists speaking at the event advised caution.
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