Suspicion and distrust are constants in Syria and journalists are often mistaken for spies. Last month four Italian journalists were detained Jabhat al-Nusra, a branch of al-Qaeda that is operating in Syria, on the accusation of being "spies". One of the four journalists detained, Susan Dabbous, recounted how one of the captors saw her writing in her notepad, and that this was seen as "evidence" of her being a government agent.