NBC News producer Ghazi Balkiz was kidnapped in Syria in December, alongside NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and a few of their colleagues. Following Engel’s recollection of the kidnapping for Vanity Fair, Balkiz writes about the experience for NBCNews.com:
When we as journalists go into the field, we know the risks we are taking. But I guess we, or at least I, always thought, “It is not going to happen to us.” But this time, it did happen to us. This does not stem from an unrealistic approach to things, events and life, because trust me: What I see in the field is very real. We cover war and conflict zones and in those situations, bad things happen and people die. The way I go about it is to plan for the worst but hope for the best.