Mission Impossible?

It's official: Being a foreign correspondent is one of the world's most thankless jobs.

Those who ply the journalistic trade around the globe are increasingly subjected to bombings, shootings, kidnappings or simply being jailed on spying charges. Yesterday's release in Gaza of two Fox News journalists who had been abducted was a welcome relief, but also a powerful reminder that reporting in war zones is a treacherous business in which Western correspondents are now deemed high-value targets.

For all the abuse heaped on journalists these days, it's worth remembering that there is a hardy band of reporters, producers, cameramen and photographers who risk their lives and put their families through great stress simply to tell the rest of us what is transpiring in faraway lands.

When Fox correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, were freed after 13 days with the help of Palestinian officials, their comments were striking. Although they had faced death, and were forced at gunpoint to make a video proclaiming that they had converted to Islam, they spoke not about themselves but the country they were trying to cover.

"My biggest concern, really, is that as a result of what happened to us, foreign journalists will be discouraged from coming here to tell the story," Wiig said. "And that would be a great tragedy for the people of Palestine, and especially for the people of Gaza. Your story does not get well told."

John Moody, Fox News's senior vice president, said in an interview that Centanni is "a quiet, self-effacing but really competent reporter. His fingernails have been dirtied. I never thought to worry about his ability to handle himself in an ugly situation." Centanni, who has also reported from Iraq and Afghanistan, volunteered to go to Gaza because other Fox correspondents had been redeployed to cover the war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas.

As for Wiig, another Fox staffer told Moody that his quick thinking may have saved their lives when they were caught in a crossfire in Iraq in 2004.

Since Gaza was widely believed to be safer than Iraq or Lebanon during the conflict with Israel, the emergence of a group called the Holy Jihad Brigades that seized the Fox journalists adds to the unsettling feeling that the press is fair game in just about any war zone.

"The entire international community is beginning to realize that journalists should never be hostages or pawns in world events," Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes said in a statement. But there are plenty of rogue factions unwilling to play by those rules.

"Most reporters have a built-in caution about having armed protection with them," Moody said. "But as the world gets more dangerous, we may have to come to new conclusions about what is acceptable."

As if to underscore the constant threat, two cameraman, one working for Reuters and another for Dubai TV, were injured yesterday when shrapnel from Israeli rockets struck their vehicle as they were headed to cover an Israeli army incursion into Gaza City.

The list of journalists killed or wounded in action this year is a growing one. On Memorial Day, CBS cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan were killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq that also badly wounded correspondent Kimberly Dozier. In January, ABC anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt were seriously injured by a roadside explosion while traveling with Iraqi troops.