CBC’s double standard

Why did the CBC impose a news embargo on the kidnapping of CBC reporter Mellissa Fung’s kidnapping on October 12, 2008 (during the middle of the Canadian election) and not this kidnapping event (below) that occurred in Afghanistan during the period of that very news embargo?

Perhaps political fallout during an election was the real reason, and not concerns about the kidnappee being proffered by the CBC and Stephen Harper?


French aid worker abducted in Kabul
Last Updated: Monday, November 3, 2008
CBC News

An Afghan bystander was killed on Monday when he tried to intervene as gunmen abducted a French aid worker on a residential street in Kabul.

One aid worker managed to escape after three assailants in a red Toyota blocked the road in front of the small van containing two French citizens, said neighbourhood police Cmdr. Mohammad Daud Amin.

A local resident who attempted to prevent the abduction was killed in the attack, Amin told the Associated Press.

Mohammad Shafi, who witnessed the attack, said the man who intervened lived in a house across from where the kidnapping occurred.

"He grabbed the machine gun of one of the kidnappers, who opened fire, burning his hand. After that the kidnapper shot him three times in the chest," Shafi said.

Some authorities have also reported the man who died was an employee of the country's intelligence agency.

Etienne Gille, president of French aid group AFRANE, said the man who escaped is a member of his staff.

"The car was blocked by another car that was driving the wrong way" from which "an armed man emerged," Gille said.

Gille declined to provide the abducted aid worker's organization but said he was in 30s, a French national and had been in the country for about a week. He added he believed it was the man's first time in Afghanistan.

The man's family has been informed, Gille said.

The French Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday a French aid worker had been kidnapped and that a crisis centre had been set up and was in contact with Afghan authorities.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Taliban militants were not involved in the kidnapping.

Abduction of foreigners on the rise


Kidnappings by criminal groups in Afghanistan have spiked over the last year because lucrative ransoms are paid to free hostages.

Wealthy Afghans are typically targeted in the kidnappings, which are rarely reported in the media.

But there has been a rise in abductions and targeted shootings of foreigners in the Kabul area over recent weeks.

It has been less than 10 days since a Briton and South African were shot dead and just two weeks since British woman aid worker was also killed in the city.

The Taliban does kidnap Westerners and Afghans, but those abductions typically take place in rural provinces.

Gille said his group will be considering how to best respond to the kidnapping, which he said is the first apparently deliberate security incident.

"We are obliged to think about the situation of the current volunteers," he said. "We will maintain some kind of presence in Afghanistan but obviously we are forced to think about the current parameters of our presence."
With files from the Associated Press and Reuters