OO Podcast: A team of journalists at gunpoint (Libya Pt. 3)

The first three episodes of Season 2 of The Outlaw Ocean Podcast are now available, and we’re pleased to once again be working with CBC.

In these episodes, my team and I traveled to Libya to investigate the grim reality faced by migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean into Europe.

In the third episode, released yesterday, this reporting effort takes an especially dark turn:

My team and I are kidnapped by a Libyan militia. I am severely beaten. All of us are taken at gunpoint to a secret prison at the militia's base. What happens over the subsequent week is brutal. And yet, it pales in comparison to what typical migrants face when they are similarly disappeared.

Now is an especially opportune moment to be releasing this episode. My team and I are still alive today partly thanks to the lottery of birth and the privileges we enjoy because we had European and US passports. Special thanks go to USAID and Dept of State and negotiations orchestrated by Samantha Power for getting us rescued. But this episode is even more timely in light of the current and far worse dangers that journalists are presently facing in Gaza, Ukraine, Haiti, Sudan and elsewhere.

You can listen to the episodes by clicking here:

Every Wednesday, we’ll push out a new episode detailing a variety of issues and colorful characters. This immersive audio documentary series brings together more than eight years of reporting at sea on all seven oceans and more than three dozen countries. The next episodes will incorporate more of our recent reporting on the Whistleblower story and the China seafood industry.