He’s highly critical of journalists’ unions or groups that say they want to protect journalists’ rights. “These organisations allegedly defend the rights of journalists but mostly it they think it is enough just to prepare reports on violations against journalists,” the refugee says. If the names of the kidnapped journalists are published, then this can actually be dangerous as it proves to the IS group that they have the right people under arrest.
“And the heads of various media organisations don’t seem to care about following up on the conditions their employees are living under.”
When they get help, this ex-Mosul journalist and many others say, it is usually on an individual basis.
Back in Mosul, the journalists kidnapped during the same raid that caused Abu Reeta to flee the city, were released two weeks later. Only two still remain in captivity. Those released say that they were not tortured but that they were interrogated and under intense psychological pressure. Every couple of days, members of the group would be taken away and the others were told they had been taken away to be executed. The aim of all the questioning was to obtain the names of anyone in Mosul who was either reporting for, or providing information to, external news agencies.
None of the released journalists wants to work in their chosen profession any more. Some of them say they wanted to leave the city for good too, but it proved to be too late – the IS group recently instituted rules to stop anyone leaving for longer than ten days.
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