海角大神

鈥� A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

NBC News Chief Correspondent Richard Engel and three members of his production crew were released safely from captivity last night, five days after being kidnapped in Syria, the news network reports. It is unclear who is responsible for the kidnapping, but the episode highlights the dangerous nature of reporting in war-torn Syria, a country the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) dubbed the deadliest place for journalists this year.

NBC reports that Mr. Engel鈥檚 captors have not been identified but are 鈥渘ot believed to be loyal to the Assad regime.鈥� (Editor's update: Engel later spoke live in Turkey and noted he believed his kidnappers were indeed pro-government shabiha militiamen.) Engel and his team went missing after crossing into Syria from Turkey last week, and there had been no communication with the network 鈥� neither requesting ransom nor laying claim for the kidnapping 鈥� while the team was in captivity.

Engel and his team have since re-entered Turkey and say they were unharmed in the incident, NBC reports.

Syria鈥檚 conflict began in March 2011 after a government crackdown on protests calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down. The violence has spiraled into a bloody civil war that has claimed the lives of close to 40,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, according to the United Nations refugee agency.聽

But, according to The Wall Street Journal, 鈥渢he multiplying of militias on both sides of the conflict has quickly and vastly complicated the scenarios for how fighting might end or a political transition may be negotiated, and what may come next after the end of the regime.鈥�

"The civilian militias to come out of this conflict are going to make Hezbollah [in Lebanon] look like a walk in the park," Joseph Holliday, a senior research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, told the Journal. Syria is not simply seeing a faceoff between government forces and rebel fighters, but the involvement of Al Qaeda-linked fighters and Iranian militants have also been noted.

CPJ projects that 2012 will be the deadliest year yet for journalists, with 67 journalist deaths registered through mid-December alone. The high numbers are in large part attributed to the conflict in Syria and how it has impacted local and international journalists trying to report there. Four international journalists were killed in Syria in 2012, but the majority of the 28 journalists killed there this year were local reporters, largely working online.

鈥淭his feels like the first YouTube war,鈥� BBC Middle East correspondent Paul Wood told CPJ. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a guy with a machine gun and two guys next to him with camera phones.鈥� Mr. Wood added that local journalists are facing multiple risks. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen pro-regime journalists targeted by rebels 鈥� it is well known. But opposition journalists say the regime is intent on targeting them as journalists.鈥�

Engel is an experienced reporter who reported on the Iraq war in its entirety and has 鈥渃overed wars, revolutions and political transitions around the world over the last 15 years,鈥� according to NBC. But there are many factors making reporting by inexperienced journalists in high-risk countries like Syria increasingly common today.

In addition to the rise of Internet journalism, there are other factors like 鈥渞elatively cheap flights to some of the world鈥檚 trouble spots鈥� and 鈥渟hrinking budgets for foreign news鈥� that 鈥渉ave dramatically reduced barriers to entry for would-be foreign correspondents,鈥� reports the BBC.

Many of these young reporters are working as freelancers, which can create an additional risk. Freelance reporter Austin Tice has been missing since August when he was kidnapped near Syria鈥檚 capital, Damascus.聽The Monitor reports that the聽number of journalists kidnapped has gone up,聽and "with the rise in the number of reporters operating in dangerous places like Syria 鈥� and with many parties seeing value in targeting them 鈥� many expect the threat to persist.鈥� However, while all journalists reporting in conflict zones can expect to face threats, the increasing number of freelancers can make working in places like Syria 鈥減articularly acute, as they are often operating without significant institutional backing and experience.鈥�

海角大神鈥檚 Tom Peter has been in and out of Syria over the course of the past few months and noted other distinct differences in reporting from Syria compared to other conflict zones in the past. 鈥淲ith Aleppo just a two-hour drive from Kilis [Turkey], many journalists have opted to drive into Syria each morning and return to Turkey to write stories and sleep. Not only is it safer, but electricity and Internet access are a sure thing,鈥� he writes.