Hats off to a real journo like Shiraaz Mohamed

The family of South African photojournalist Shiraaz Mohamed – who arrived back in the country yesterday after a harrowing three years in captivity in Syria – must be mightily relieved to have him back.

And one can understand their request to Mohammed’s colleagues in the media to give them time to reconnect with him. The ordeal will certainly remain in their memories for the rest of their lives.

It will be interesting to hear, after all the confusion which has surrounded him over the past few weeks, whether he did indeed escape from his captors and was delivered to Turkish officials by friendly people.

In wishing Mohamed and his family well, and noting the happy ending for this story, we, as journalists, cannot fail to salute the courage and determination of photographers and reporters like Mohamed.

They are prepared to put themselves in harm’s way to ensure that we are informed correctly about events in war zones. That is one of the reasons so many of them are targeted by those who would rather light not be shone on the dark places they inhabit.

In the future, as social media’s fake news explodes, real journalism is going to become more and more important across the globe.

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