Alan Johnston. Should reporters be send to dangerous areas?

[AB Asks]

Finally Alan Johnston has been released, which is great news. 114 days in a makeshift prison and he's still smiling. Should corporations send journalists out to dangerous places? Would you be willing to know less about conflicts if it meant keeping people safe?

[Gromit]

If that is where the story is, then they should go. The best reporting from the invasion of Baghdad was not from the embedded reporters but the ones that were following their own initiative. Of course it can be dangerous, but that goes with the job of reporter/journalist.

[ludwig]

As I've said before on an identical question, you couldn't keep them away if you tried, they absolutely love it. They're aware of the risks and they choose to go.
It's every foreign correspondent's dream to win an award for doing a piece to camera while crouching in a foxhole with mortars going off all around.

[MrBen5]

Hmmm, all media should be banned from anywhere, except celebrity parties and the red carpet, and of course Miss World contests...

[08012006]

Glad he is free at last.
But his pre-captivity reports from Gaza were so boring, both in subject and through his monotone delivery.
I can well do without these on-the-spot war-zone despatches.

[anotheoldgit]

Why should't they go out to dangerous places, they get a great more money for the risk they take, than our atrociously payed soldiers do.

It is abysmal the very poor pay (some below the minimal wage) they are payed for putting their very lives at risk. In fact this is one reason that recruitment has fallen to an all time low.

But then if numbers drop so much that we can no longer defend our country even, then they may be forced to bring back National Service, so it's not all bad.

[jedimistress]

You already asked this one.