NYT reporter Rukmini Callimachi reveals the ethical challenges covering extremist groups
I have to... shut off a part of my brain and of my humanity.- Journalist Rukmini Callimachi on talking to ISIS
Kayla Mueller was an American aid worker who was kidnapped by ISIS, and killed while being held by the jihadist group in Syria in 2015. And earlier this month, there were criminal charges in the Mueller case when a 25-year-old woman known as Umm Sayyaf, the wife of a deceased ISIS leader, was charged with conspiracy in a U.S. court in relation to Kayla's death.
According to the woman's testimony, none other than Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, had held the 26-year-old aid worker captive — before her death. Her testimony offers a disturbing glimpse into the real world workings of ISIS, something journalist Rukmini Callimachi has studied carefully, for years.
It's very hard to quote a terrorist in a news article.- Rukmini Callimachi, NYT Foreign Correspondent
Rukmini Callimachi is a foreign correspondent for The New York Times covering extremism, including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Callimachi joined Anna Maria Tremonti to talk about the insights she's gained covering extremism, and extremists, and also her relationship with sources inside ISIS and al-Qaeda, as part of our occasional series Eye On The Media.
This segment was produced by The Current's Pacinthe Mattar.