The
Sydney Morning Herald and the
BBC are reporting that Australian journalist John Martinkus, who was taken hostage in Baghdad on Saturday, was freed after his captors googled him. (Presumably they saw
this, or something like it.) The story is that they suspected he may have been CIA or somesuch, and concluded he wasn't. (
This would have convinced me, among other things; looks to me that Martinkus is one of the good guys.)
One part of the story that stands out is that the Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer (great name!) criticised Martinkus after he was kidnapped, on account of he was supposedly in a part of Baghdad that he'd been warned to stay away from. (Story here, Martinkus denying it here; links to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, not some other ABC.) Sounds to me as if you can't report what's happening in Iraq well if you don't ignore them when they tell you where it's safe to go. I don't say that journalists have a duty to risk their lives, but when they do it, and something happens to them, you honour them, you don't criticise them.
Thank goodness he survived. If only Australia had ditched this government.