Two Iraqi Journalists Taken Hostage

(Baghdad) A few hours ago, terrorists abducted two journalists from a car traveling the streets of Baghdad.

From Aljazeera.net:

Police and station officials said on Thursday that Reem Zaid, 23, and her colleague Marwan Khaza'al, 25, were returning to the offices of Sumariya TV in Baghdad on Wednesday after attending a press conference when they were kidnapped by gunmen.

A station official who spoke on condition of anonymity said: "They were in a car with two cameramen and their driver when another car blocked them. The five gunmen took the correspondents and their car and left the two cameramen."

Many Iraqi media outlets are also controlled by various political factions inside and outside the government, but the Sumariya official said that the station was privately owned by Iraqis and had no links to any political group.

So, here's a case which appears to be something other than a random kidnapping or the abduction of an opponent.

As journalists, Zaid and Khaza'al apparently were targeted and tracked. Evidently the terrorists recognize that the media exposure associated with kidnapping journalists is exponentially greater than what occurs with businessmen, politicians, or military personnel. Consequently, the terroists are capitalizing on the situation and making journalists their preferred hostages.

Even so, I have to wonder why they didn't take the cameramen also. After all, they too are journalists.