Attack Of Journalist Lara Logan Raises Questions For Female Correspondents

In this Feb. 11, 2011 photo released by CBS, "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan is shown covering the reaction in in Cairo's Tahrir Square the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down. (AP)

In this Feb. 11, 2011 photo released by CBS, "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan is shown covering the reaction in Cairo's Tahrir Square the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down. (AP)

CBS correspondent Lara Logan “suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating” while covering the celebrations in Tahrir Square this month, according to a CBS statement. She was eventually rescued by a group of women and Egyptian soldiers, and she is now back in the U.S. recovering.

But her case has female foreign correspondents talking about how to deal with the dangers they experience daily. New York Times reporter Sabrina Tavernise writes about what’s she’s faced “reporting while female,” while ProPublica’s Kim Barker fears there will be “unconscious decisions to send men” to dangerous areas instead of women.

We speak with Judith Matloff, adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She also served as bureau chief in Moscow and Africa for the Christian Science Monitor and is on the board of the International News Safety Institute.

Columbia Journalism Review: Unspoken, Foreign correspondents and sexual abuse

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

Guest

So, I hate to seem callous, but given my druthers I’ll take being raped over being beheaded—a fate that seems to befall males as frequently as the former befalls females.
Archie

Use of the Glen Beck Quote was wrong.
Mr. Beck has placed himself on the fringe of the fringe.
He is irrelevant and usually wrong on the facts.
If you need a voice from the right the are many better choices.
Please declare a “Beck free zone”. Take a pledge to never mention him again.
Stephan Nolan

Judith Matloff’s statement and laughing about HIV was totally insensitive and inappropriate.
“Nobody’s going to really want to touch you then.”
That really is totally unforgiveable!!!
Not of a standard that I would expect from this show.
N. Friedman

Why, during the entire time of the show, was nothing said about the comments made by those who attacked Ms. Logan? It is noted they thought she is a Jew and taunted her with “Jew, Jew, Jew.” Does Antisemitism make the list of NPR concerns? Thus far, the answer is “No.”