US journalist Austin Tice's 2012 kidnapping planned by Assad regime, BBC investigation finds

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover US journalist Austin Tice's 2012 kidnapping planned by Assad regime…?

Of the 9 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 22% are rated left, 11% are rated centre, 67% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 17. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.

Is US journalist Austin Tice's 2012 kidnapping planned by Assad regime… left or right?

Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 9 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.

Is the coverage of US journalist Austin Tice's 2012 kidnapping planned by Assad regime… biased?

US journalist Austin Tice's 2012 kidnapping planned by Assad regime, BBC investigation finds is one event reported by 17 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.

Which side is not reporting US journalist Austin Tice's 2012 kidnapping planned by Assad regime…?

When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.

Which outlets covered US journalist Austin Tice's 2012 kidnapping planned by Assad regime…?

17 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.

When was US journalist Austin Tice kidnapped in Syria?

US journalist Austin Tice was kidnapped in Syria in August 2012. He had been working as an independent freelance journalist covering the Syrian civil war at the time of his disappearance.

What new evidence suggests who was behind the kidnapping?

A BBC investigation, citing former members of the National Defense Forces and confidential Syrian intelligence files, suggests the abduction was planned by forces loyal to former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The investigation indicates Tice's driver betrayed him by passing information to the regime.

What was the Syrian regime's previous stance on the kidnapping allegations?

The Syrian regime previously denied all allegations of kidnapping the American journalist. However, in 2022, President Joe Biden stated that the U.S. knew Syrian authorities had Tice in their possession.