by David Kavanagh

The video of James Foley’s brutal death ends with a direct address to US President Barack Obama.

A masked jihadist, having murdered the American journalist only moments before, holds another man by the sleeves of his orange jumpsuit and states in an undeniably British accent: “the life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.”

Barbaric and horrific as it was, James Foley’s execution was obviously politically motivated – Islamic State fighters had had enough of the US’ targeted airstrikes against them in Iraq.

They implied that if Obama does not withdraw his forces soon, the other man, assumed to be US journalist Steven Joel Sotloff, and possibly at least 20 other local and foreign journalists and aid workers who are also believed to be held by the extremist group, would meet a similarly unsightly end.

In a solemn response to the video, Obama honoured Jim for his courageous reportage in war zones such as Libya and Syria, denounced the Islamic State as an embodiment of evil that “speaks for no religion” and ensured the American people that the USA would continue to “act against ISIL” (the Islamic State) while “standing alongside others.”

He did not, however, directly mention Sotloff or the other captives and went on to authorise further action and airstrikes in Iraq; a neccessary move if we’re ever going to get rid of this group which is, according to US Secretary of Defence, Chuck Hagel, “beyond anything (the US) has seen” before, but not good news for the captured journalists.

It’s already a tense and difficult moral quandary for the US. Sotloff’s family is unwilling to give in.

Unlike Foley’s family, who believed immediately publicising their son’s disappearance from Syria in November 2012 would help mobilise efforts to rescue him (the US did attempt to free Foley and other captives a while ago), Sotloff’s relatives were advised to remain quiet to see how things would progress.

In the wake of the recent tragic developments, they have started a petition calling for the White House to “do everything possible” to free the American reporter.

Jim’s family shared similar sentiments:

We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world.

Like James Foley, Florida-born Steven Sotloff was working in Syria as a freelance journalist when he disappeared near the city of Aleppo in August 2013.

Following the death of the legendary American frontline journalist, Marie Colvin, during the siege of Homs about a year and a half earlier, most major foreign news outlets pulled their reporters from Syria.

With at least 70 reporters having lost their lives reporting in what the Committee to Protect Journalists called one of the “most dangerous places to be a journalist” in 2012, it was simply too risky to continue embedding their workers in the country.

The job of documenting and bearing witness to the atrocities committed by both Assad’s military and rebel factions, like the Free Syrian Army and, of course, the Islamic State, fell into the hand of the citizen journalists who couldn’t escape and freelancers, like Foley and Sotloff, too brave and too committed to the truth to leave.

Having worked in tricky places like Egypt, Turkey, Libya, Bahrain, and Syria, and published for publications like Times magazine, Foreign Policy, the Christian Science Monitor, the Daily Caller, and most recently the World Affairs Journal, the 31-year-old Sotloff can be said to have a tremendous amount of experience telling the stories of those affected by war and conflict.

Janine di Giovanni, Middle East editor of Newsweek and Sotloff’s former coworker, described him as follows:

Sotloff is young and funny and irreverent. He lived in Benghazi, Libya—he actually lived there—one of the few freelance reporters who felt he had to stay there to do his job properly. He is a great storyteller, but he is also smart and committed.

Similarly, staff at the World Affairs Journal called him:

An honest and thoughtful journalist who strives to understand the story from local perspectives and report his findings straightforwardly. He is certainly courageous.

Whatever the future might hold, we should always think of Steven Sotloff, like James Foley, as a dedicated, intrepid and brave journalist.

The politics behind this situation are messy and it breaks my heart to think that he may also pay the ultimate price for his commitment to the important pursuit of news.

UPDATE (Sep 3 2014):

Sad news today. The Islamic State has released another video entitled “A Second Message to America” depicting the murder of Steven Sotloff.

Very similar to the James Foley video, it ends with a warning:

We take this opportunity to warn those governments that have entered this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone.

Another man is then shown kneeling in an orange jumpsuit – supposedly the next in line. He is David Haines, a British aid worker captured by IS in Syria in March 2013.

IS is now blatantly addressing other nations involved in the conflict as well.

Given that there are at least 20 other foreign and local journalists and aid workers currently imprisoned by the extremist group, it seems these brutal executions could continue for some time to come.

What it hopes to achieve is up to debate. Some commentators suggest the militants want to coax the US and allies into another drawn out conflict like the Iraq War to attain more public support.

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