{"id":1373,"date":"2004-10-19T20:19:18","date_gmt":"2004-10-20T03:19:18","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2004-10-19T20:19:18","modified_gmt":"2004-10-20T03:19:18","slug":"journalists-saved-by-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2004\/10\/19\/journalists-saved-by-google\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalists saved by Google"},"content":{"rendered":"

Journalists in Iraq are learning that having their columns online is a lifesaver – especially if they’re not pro-war or pro-occupation. Australian journalist John Martinkus <\/a>was googled and released:<\/p>\n

Iraqi militants who kidnapped a reporter in Baghdad and threatened to kill him Googled his name to investigate his work before releasing him unharmed.<\/p>\n

Australian John Martinkus was seized early on Saturday and held for nearly 24 hours before being freed.<\/p>\n

His executive producer at an Australian news network, Mike Carey, said that the Internet – often used by Iraqi militants to air grisly images of hostages being beheaded – probably saved Martinkus.<\/p>\n

“They Googled him and then went onto a website and saw that he was who he was, and that was instrumental in letting him go, I think, or swinging their decision.”<\/p>\n

Carey said the company only heard of Martinkus’s abduction after his release.<\/p>\n

“I got a call from John saying, ‘Mate, I’m at my fixer’s house, they’ve dropped us at the fixer’s house. I’ve been kidnapped but I’m free’,” he said.<\/p>\n

Fixers are local people employed to help journalists.<\/p>\n

Martinkus said his kidnappers initially threatened to kill him, before checking on his background.<\/p>\n

He said he was treated well once he had told his kidnappers he was an independent reporter not linked to the United States-led coalition in Iraq.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Canadian journalist Scott Taylor <\/a>, in this interview with AntiWar.com’s Chris Deliso relates a similar story:<\/p>\n

After torturing me, the mujahedin gave me a pen and paper and told me to write down all the Web sites that might help prove my case. Even though they told me I had “failed the test” afterwards, I’m pretty sure from their behavior that they found enough articles there to vindicate me.<\/p>\n

A later interrogator who questioned me at length was especially interested in why I hadn’t denounced the “imperialist occupation” of Iraq. He was very clear about this word. Come on \u2013 of course I have criticized the occupation on numerous occasions.<\/p>\n

Thinking fast, I specifically referred them to one of our earlier interviews, “The Empire Strikes Out,”<\/a> as well as the other interviews on Antiwar.com and on your site,<\/a> besides other articles I’ve published.<\/p>\n

CD: So, do you think that these interviews helped persuade the mujahedin to release you?<\/p>\n

ST: I can’t prove that, but I’ve got to think it was probably a big help. \u2026 At very least I think it kept me alive at various points when they easily could have killed me, and would have.<\/p>\n

And technically, it was this last group with the “anti-imperialist” leader that released me. So the specific articles I gave them, plus what you get when doing a search for my name and Iraq, yeah, I got to think that it helped swing things in my favor. So \u2026 thanks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journalists in Iraq are learning that having their columns online is a lifesaver – especially if they’re not pro-war or pro-occupation. Australian journalist John Martinkus was googled and released: Iraqi militants who kidnapped a reporter in Baghdad and threatened to kill him Googled his name to investigate his work before releasing him unharmed. Australian John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}