The Growing Danger of Reporting from Syria

BBC correspondent Paul Wood has been awarded the David Bloom award for his reporting from inside Syria. He talks with host Lisa Mullins about the growing complexity of the Syrian conflict, and the difficulties correspondents face as they try to verify the accounts of those caught up in the fighting.

The first hurdle reporters must cross is getting into Syria. Some slip across the border from Lebanon.

“You can pay smugglers who then bribe Syrian security men and Syrian soldiers. You can go with fighters and you can go with activists. We’ve tended to go with activists or fighters. We’ve never paid so far. I think I would trust someone more who is doing it for ideological reasons,” Wood says.

Wood explains that it’s getting more difficult to cross the border from Lebanon into Syria. The opposition believe the Syrian army has put 15,000 soldiers on the border and 11 tanks, he says.