I was this weekend invited to a fascinating insight into the worldwide problem of kidnap. The small gathering was conducted under the Chatham House Rule which, interpreted correctly, means simply that I am unable to attribute what was said to a named individual or reveal the person’s affiliations. But I did additionally (for reasons which I hope will become obvious later in this post) agree not to report the discussions concerning some of the case studies mentioned because, in a couple of instances, they are still ongoing situations.
Despite the restrictions, there were some elements which I felt would be on interest to readers of this section of my blog, not least how technology is driving both the problem of kidnapping and its solutions, plus the media’s role in such a highly complex arena.
The following are some notes/thoughts from the event – it won’t be news to anyone working in this field, but I’m hoping it’s of interest to journalists who rarely have to deal with such issues.
Kidnapping worldwide is increasing – to my mind a fairly unsurprising consequence of the growing divide between the global haves and have nots.
A map of the globe was able to pinpoint places where kidnap has long been high-risk such as south America and Nigeria, but also places where the risk is emerging such as Georgia.
The meeting spent some time considering the different definitions of types of kidnap from the rich person held for cash to terrorism motivated abductions seeking to effect political change.
With the commercial type of kidnap, there’s a category defined as ‘express’ where a person is taken shortly before midnight and forced to withdraw as much cash as allowable and then held a short time before being forced to do it all again after midnight – a fast way of obtaining cash with violence, very real, quick and dirty with no reliance on any technology..
But then there’s ‘virtual’ kidnapping – where the subject won’t even be aware of the crime at the time. After carrying out surveillance on the subject to build up a picture of their regular movements, the kidnappers place signal blockers at a venue the target is safely inside – think nightclub or friend’s house – before extorting cash from frantic worried family or friends.
But mobile technologies are also helping those tasked with preventing and solving kidnap crimes.
Using the GPS capabilities of mobile phones, tech savvy workers in high risk areas can use them as beacons to alert people as to their last known whereabouts or to activate voice recording.
They can also register their known radius or regular routes so that any deviation to this can be sent to their employers or security services.
Of course the kidnappers can also be pretty tech savvy too, having ‘wands’ to detect beacons or rather more crudely cutting open scarred area of limbs to search for sub-cutaneous implanted devices.
The number of kidnaps where a UK citizen is seized is difficult to quantify as crimes defined as kidnap also relate to the abduction of children or situations when one element of a family takes a child into their care against the wishes of the legal guardian.
The role of the media has been a contentious issue. As a journalist it was somewhat startling the hear investigative journalism standing accused – ‘public right to know V lives of hostages – but there have reportedly been situations when the activity of journalists has been responsible for a kidnap negotiation failing.
Plus some agreed news blackouts have been credited with helping bring about releases.
But clearly, while not all publicity of kidnaps can always be a bad thing in all circumstances, the communication problems stem from the complexities of the negotiations involved which become clear when the number of different agencies involved is detailed.
As well as the victim, their immediate family (and sometimes their employers), the stakeholders involved every time a UK citizen is taken hostage are incredibly widespread – the government agencies, security services, the wider family, the media, negotiators, intermediaries from specialist companies, the metropolitan police – and the list goes on.
Dealing with such diverse interests, often in parts of the world where life is cheap, clearly involves operating and holding discussions in many areas of grey where there is rarely black and white clarity. One thing I’m sure all parties would agree is that this is an environment for highly-skilled and trained experts.
Dim Sum Digital 