Join us for a screening of The Ransom followed by a Q&A with film director Rémi Lainé in conversation with former chief foreign correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph Colin Freeman.

The Ransom dives into the secret system of Kidnap & Ransom, designed by major insurance companies in response to the 30,000 kidnappings committed every year around the world. International insurance companies have created kidnap & ransom, ultra-confidential contracts that are experiencing an unprecedented boom. Following a pending case in Venezuela, The Ransom, filmed in Africa, Europe and the USA, features insurers, negotiators and ex-hostages who speak out for the first time.

With exclusive access to leading hostage recovery agents, The Ransom reveals the cat and mouse games employed to bring a hostage out alive.

By following a few central characters in this interconnected world – often expressing themselves for the first time – The Ransom questions the price of one man’s life and reveals the impact of this vast global organisation on countries with a heightened risk of kidnapping such as Venezuela or Somalia. By emphasising prevention and increasing protection devices, aren’t we just increasing the vulnerability of those who don’t have the means to protect themselves?

“and the price of a man’s life has been determined by the price of things” (Saint-Just)

Foreign reporters began to go missing in Syria in the autumn of 2012. The first disappeared just as the conflict slid from violent unrest into the abyss of outright civil war. Within a year the numbers were in double figures. By the close of 2013 rebel held zones were effectively barren of journalists.

What happened to our missing reporters? Who holds them and what can we do to help secure their release? Roving foreign correspondent for The Times Anthony Loyd will be chairing a panel of specialists with first hand knowledge of the hostage crisis in Syria to examine how best we can aid the vanished.

The panel:

John Wade is the deputy director of the Response Division at Control Risks.

Paul Wood is a correspondent at the BBC who has covered Syria extensively.

Michael Hoare is deputy head of press and digital at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Karen Lajon is senior correspondent for Le Journal du Dimanche and co-chair of the support committee for French Hostages in Syria.

This event is off the record, please refrain from filming and reporting the discussion.

 

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In late 2008, Daily Telegraph correspondent Colin Freeman and Jose Cendon, a Spanish photographer travelled to Somalia to investigate the recent spate of piracy attacks that were terrorising shipping in the Gulf of Aden. Their aim was to track down some of the pirates and secure an exclusive interview.

They were double crossed by their body guards and what followed was a nightmare 40 days in captivity. Force-marched into the desolate hills they were held in a succession of caves by a gang of armed men, all paranoically high on the amphetamine-like local plant, khat. The gang’s hideout was attacked by rival pirates, Freeman was subjected to mock execution by one of his captors and the threat of being handed over to Islamists who would undoubtedly execute him was constant lingering fear.

Colin Freeman, who is now chief foreign correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph will be joining us at the Frontline Club to discuss his new book Kidnapped: Life as a Somali pirate hostage in which he recalls the experience.

Chaired by Inigo Gilmore, award winning journalist and filmmaker who has worked across the world, with extensive experience in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He won the Royal Television Society Award in 2011 for his work in Haiti last year, following earthquake.

By Andrew Sampson

On the 30th of December last year, two French journalists were kidnapped by an Afghan ‘warlord’ whilst covering a story for France 3.

When news was received of their capture, an immediate request was sent out to other news organisations not to release the journalists’ names due to safety concerns.

Six months earlier, on July 31st, a similar dilemma faced the family of a young American freelance journalist, Shane Bauer, when he was abducted by Iranian officials whilst on a short working holiday in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Shane’s family had no choice about disclosure of his name… it quickly became public knowledge and the media rapidly descended en force.

The key difference being Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier had the support of a large media organisation, while Shane Bauer had none.

Shane Bauer’s situation demonstrates what happens when such a crisis descends on people who do not have the backing that money and influence brings.

To add to the complexity, three families were involved because three people were detained, while only one was a journalist.

The US state department was supportive and the families managed to get help and advice in handling the media. However, this is not the same as having the backing of a large corporation to advise on decision making.

In Shane’s case, there were legitimate worries. Worries about how Shane might be treated in Iran if too much attention was paid to his work, especially as his capture coincided with the violent aftermath of the pro-democracy demonstrations.

Often in past cases, where a journalist has been ‘abducted’, the world’s media often takes up the case themselves. It becomes a matter of supporting one of ‘their own’.

Things began to change around the 6th month mark for the campaign to release Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier and also for the ‘Free The Hikers’ campaign.

In France, the six months captivity of the French journalists was seen as an outrage.

To mark the occasion, local officials in Bordeaux and Nantes put large portraits on government buildings and in the Luxembourg gardens in Paris.
French newspapers ran full-page ads by the Paris-based NGO, Reporters Without Borders.

France did what it does best.

For Shane Bauer and his two friends, six months of detention received little media attention. The US media is a very different animal to that in France. It lacks the unity of spirit of a smaller country.

So, despite the best efforts of family and friends, coverage was limited.

One Year in Jail

In a few days time Shane, Sarah and Josh will have been in Evin prison for one year. A year in which they have been subjected to horrors they will never forget, in a prison where torture and executions are regular affairs.

A year in which all three were subjected to long periods in solitary. To this day, Sarah is still in a cell on her own for twenty-three hours a day.

And how will this gruesome anniversary be commemorated?

No town council will be hanging banners. Reporters without Borders won’t be taking out full page adverts.

Instead, Shane’s family will be holding small vigils and activities throughout the world, hoping upon hope that the media will report this.

There is a glimmer of hope. Finally, after nearly a year, the media in Europe is beginning to listen to the story.

Perhaps, as the media becomes more passionately involved, the governments will listen.

You can read more about Shane Bauer and the story of his detainment here.

Shane’s mother, Cindy is visiting the UK on the 21st July to talk at the Frontline Club, for full details of the event and to book tickets please see here.

It was a routine which had been implemented after the Fox News crew were taken last year. Only a few weeks previously, the Head of High Risk and the World Newsgathering Editor had visited Alan to look at his security in Gaza.

Alan had even written a kidnap plan which contained his express wishes about the involvement of his family, and a duress code – a word which he would use if he had to make a video to show he was being forced to say things.

I wondered about the value of this when Alan’s two videos came out. I felt proud of him for his calmness and composure. But I didn’t suppose that he was voluntarily saying all that stuff about Tony Blair and George Bush being responsible for all the world’s ills.

We also had a Proof of Life question worked out – which we asked the kidnappers to put to Alan. If the correct answer came back, it would have meant they had him and he was alive. Ours was: “What was the name of cat in South Africa.”

We later understood that the Arabic had become somewhat garbled and this had become “What is the national cat of South Africa”. We had visions of Alan desperately wracking his brains – is it a Siamese, or a Persian?

BBC News has dealt with a number of staff crises over the years. A kidnap however was new territory for us, with no blueprint to work from. We sought advice from those who had dealt with kidnaps in the recent past, including the Fox team, who we believed had been taken by the same group.

Three of our team went straight to Gaza in the initial hours and stayed for the next three weeks. They were joined by Fayed Abu Shammala, a Gazan who had been the BBC Arabic Service correspondent and a close friend and colleague of Alan’s. He demonstrated his courage over the course of the weeks in meeting many dangerous characters, at great personal risk to himself.

Fayed was vital in gathering information, quickly establishing who might be holding Alan. But the reasons why, and what it was the  kidnappers wanted, proved maddeningly and frighteningly elusive. A Foreign Office crisis team was formed, they flew staff out from London and we met them  virtually  every day to share information and devise strategies.

Early in the process, it was obvious that this was a more complex kidnapping than had taken place before in Gaza. Alan was the victim of rapidly disintegrating political structures. We had established that it was probably the Dogmoush clan who were responsible.

Those of us previously not well-versed in Palestinian politics rapidly became expert. The Dogmoush is a 9,000-strong clan led by a 29-year-old warlord, Mumtaz Dogmoush.
In the complex Gazan world of clans, blood feuds, killings and the need for retribution, his motive appeared to be attempting to shore up his position against Hamas and Fatah, both of whom he had reportedly fallen out with after conducting military operations for them both.

So began our campaign of trying to exert pressure on Palestinian politicians in the hope they could persuade the gang to surrender their trophy. The Palestinians themselves launched a huge local campaign, led by local journalists, to resolve the case. The problem though, was that we had no way of assessing whether this was actually helping Alan, by putting his case on the map, or making things worse, by pushing his price up to the kidnappers.

After three weeks of silence from the kidnappers, on Good Friday, the case took a more ominous turn. The British government received a set of political demands. They called for the release of prisoners in Jordan and of Abu Qatada – the al-Qaeda cleric in jail in the UK – demands which could never be met. We now began to wonder whether we were in fact dealing with a bunch of criminals or al-Qaeda.

Sections of the Israeli press were keen to push the view that “al-Qaeda Palestine” was now firmly established. Over the course of the four months it was never entirely clear who was in charge in Alan’s kidnapping. In Jerusalem, where the investigation end of the operation was largely being handled, we would gather on the terrace of the Ambassador Hotel, desperately analysing the information, trying to make sense of it.

And when it was all over,  did  any  of what we did actually help Alan? We are still not sure. The press campaign was hugely valuable: to the BBC and its staff – who magnificently threw their whole weight behind it; and to Alan – for the comfort it gave him during those terrible months. But in the end it was probably local politics that brought about Alan’s release. Hamas, having taken Gaza by force, saw a huge prize in attempting to establish themselves as a political movement to be taken seriously.

And what of the wider lessons?

It is clear that assessing risk is no longer about simply watching out for bombs and bullets in conflict zones. Radical Islam has now become one of the major issues facing us. We need to learn a great deal more of these groups and how they operate if we are to keep our people safe.