“Reporters In Baghdad Mobilized” To Find Kidnapped Freelancer

“The small community of reporters in Baghdad (shrinking by the month) has pulled together around the kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll in a way I have not seen here before,” NBC’s Richard Engel blogs on MSNBC.com.

Engel: “When news of her kidnapping broke here on Saturday morning, reporters in Baghdad mobilized. I was proud to see how so many of my colleagues sprung into action.

Many reporters (including those at the NBC News bureau) stopped nearly all of their regular responsibilities and tried to find out what we could about Jill, sending staff to the scene, and working contacts in the U.S. military and embassy. We helped keep the story quiet — an act of self-policing we ultimately lost.

But the effort is not over, and some reporters are still working the phones, and “pinging” contacts to try to find out what we can about Jill. Because although she was more exposed than most, at some level we know that one day this could happen to any one of us.”

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