Last Friday, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was brutally attacked in Cairo's Tahrir Square in Egypt, shortly following the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.
When news of Logan's ordeal hit American shores earlier this week, there was an understandable bit of outrage. We were shocked to think that this could happen to one of our journalists.
The reality, however, is that attacks on journalists like Logan are hardly out of the ordinary. Many journalists were killed in the Iraq War, and when reporters are sent to hostile areas like Egypt, things like this are going to happen.
Quite simply, it is the danger a journalist assumes when he or she reports on a story in the middle of a large mob. It's certainly horrifying, but for journalists, it is simply a fact of life.
To be clear, we are not engaging in victim blaming. Obviously, no woman deserves to be sexually assaulted, nor does any journalist deserve to be attacked. We are simply stating that this, unfortunately, is an all-too-common occurrence.
As young journalists ourselves, The Spectrum staff has nothing but admiration for journalists like Logan, who are willing to risk their lives, and throw themselves into the line of fire in order to get the best story. They represent the epitome of bravery, as well as integrity.
When journalists cover these sorts of areas, they are often faced with a difficult conundrum. Should they seek the maximum amount of police protection, and potentially sacrifice some quality in their reporting, or should they go for less protection, and take the most hands-on approach possible?
Clearly, Logan chose the latter, and while the result was horrible to say the least, we applaud her for doing so. The world needs journalists who are fearless, and willing to take risks for the good of their craft. Logan would certainly fit that criterion.
This was not the first ordeal Logan has faced while reporting from Egypt. Two weeks ago, her crew was detained by the Egyptian Army and interrogated throughout the night, where it was forced to stay in "stress positions." Clearly, Egypt is not particularly friendly to Western journalists.
This could also be said is a lot of countries, as reporters from America tend to be perceived as the enemy, and they face numerous dangers and threats as a result of that.
When a reporter goes to a hostile area like Egypt, this is the type of situation they are going to face.
That doesn't mean it was Logan's fault, or that she was asking for it. It simply means that she was doing her job as a journalist, and paid a very steep price. It's unfortunate, but that's the way things are.
