Yacht pirates and how they hoodwink the media

11:01 PM Fri 30 Apr 2010 GMT

'Somali pirates circling a ship - cargo ships are easier picking than yachts' .

'The fate of some cruising sailors has been exacerbated by the world's mass media - they play into the pirates' hands by printing anything they are told, thus making their rescue more difficult.' These are the words of a source close to the family of some cruisers who have been in pirates hands for many months.

Not wanting to be named until after a rescue is successful, the spokesman for an organisation trying to help the rescue attempt is pleading with the world's media - mostly unsuccessfully - not to print the stories that the pirates tell them in telephone calls.

'Most of the information is not true, but they think that they can play on the sympathies of the gullible journalists and the public at large, and eventually a ransom in the millions will be forthcoming.'

'Pirates bundle sailor hostages into the boot to flee from militants'

'Rachel Chandler shot'

'Rachel Chandler in rape attack'

'Paul Chandler now blind from eye disease'

These are just of the few of the headlines over preceding weeks.

Background:
The Chandlers were kidnapped in waters between Seychelles and Tanzania on October 22 last year, and have been in the hands of pirates ever since. Britain has stood its ground not to pay a ransom for the couple, and the media frenzy has continued, playing to the natural sympathy of readers.

Since the kidnapping of the Chandlers, no other cruising sailors have been taken hostage. However, they usually avoid the ocean areas where the Chandlers were kidnapped, cooperating with authorities and passing through the Gulf of Aden close enough to the Yemen coast to stay within the protection of the Yemeni coastguard. Larger yachts who can maintain a 15knot speed sail through the zone guarded by the Coalition and European naval forces.

Cargo ships are, in any case, easier pickings for the pirates, who customarily earn millions of dollars from the shipping companies who pay up quickly rather than see their crews kept for months in pirate hands.

Even from the pirates's slewed and criminal perspective they must now think they made a huge tactical mistake in thinking they could make some easy money by picking on some British cruising sailors.

by Nancy Knudsen

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Yacht pirates and how they hoodwink the media

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