The problem with blaming a mob is exactly that. You're blaming a 7 year old and you can't really point a finger. I suppose blaming the victim is easier. It allows people to cope with an injustice that has them wonder what they would do if it was them. The first thing that comes to most people's mind is "I wouldn't go there, period", or "I would be extremely careful".

These are journalists and this is news. Their work requires that they go and report it. I like to believe that having done this for a while they are aware of the dangers and take some measures of precautions, but sometimes a bad call can change all this. It's not their fault, they're human.

However, saying that these journalists' bosses are clueless and that Ms. Logan speaking up might change their opinion when it comes to sending a female is a bit naive. They've also been doing this job long enough to have heard hush stories of what goes on in those remote areas in time of crisis, and what happens to journalists male or female.

What I would like to know is what steps are taken by news companies to ensure their people's security while in harms way to bring us those scoops. Why do we have to wait until the damage is done to start pondering on these questions? Also, I'm wondering if the bravado reporter's cliché isn't a little bit to blame for journalists taking abuses silently. Maybe the solution to the problem might even be really simple and has just never been introduced, because the culture has people believe that they need to wear their stigmas as a badge of honor to be considered for the journalism's pantheons.

I know this is probably a very unpopular opinion, but I'm going to say it: women reporters simply should not put themselves in this kind of danger. Journalists in general shouldn't feel the need to be somewhere their safety isn't secure. But the fact is women are at a much higher risk of assault in many situations because of their gender. Mobs of mostly angry men with no police presence around are precisely the places women shouldn't be. Is one's safety really worth a few more descriptive words of rose pedals and sacrificed goats?

In most cases the story isn't whats going on in the mob, but why the mob is there in the first place. One doesn't have to be physically in the middle of it to do excellent reporting. In fact, it seems to me that this idea is one of the problems with modern 'journalism'. It's completely superficial. Just throw your reporter in the middle of the hurricane, record them saying "wow its really windy" and you've done your job. I'll take real in depth reporting from the sidelines over sound-bites and photo-ops any day.

Sexual assault is one of those things that lots of folks are afraid to talk about because it seems too easy to offend people.

I'm not surprised to find zero comments in this thread.

I think this kind of thing gets portrayed differently depending on where it happens. Happens in Egypt and people might try to blame to reporter, if it happened in a big American city I think the blame would be squarely on those that committed the act. Do we hold different parts of the world to different moral account?

<offtopic> I am wondering about the HN ranking system. This post gets 24 upvotes 8 comments in 2 hours and still not showing up on the front page </offtopic>