Meanwhile, a new story was sweeping the Middle East. On December 18, 2010, a fruit vendor in Tunisia set himself on fire to protest the repressive ruling regime—a spark that kindled pro-democracy uprisings across North Africa and in the neighboring Middle East. In January 2011, hundreds of thousands flocked to Cairo’s Tahrir Square, demanding the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak; by February 11, he was gone. Addario followed the events from Sudan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, where she was on assignment for the New York Times. Some governments responded with force: demonstrators were killed. In several countries, the government tried to shut down Internet access and stifle the press.

Logan Assault . Journalists became targets. On February 3, the Times reported a pattern of harassment of journalists in Egypt that included detentions, beatings, vandalism, and a carjacking. ^[17] The next day, CPJ reported that a videographer for an Egyptian newspaper had died, shot by a government sniper. ^[18] On February 11, the day Mubarak stepped down, CBS News’ chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan was violently assaulted in Tahrir Square. Logan had been reporting on the celebration for the news magazine 60 Minutes when she became separated from her bodyguards and crew and was attacked by a frenzied mob. At the time, CBS reported only that Logan had been the victim of a “brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating.” ^[19] Most journalists, including Addario, assumed Logan had been gang-raped. ^[20]

The attack on Logan reignited the ongoing debate over the role of women in war reporting. Celebrated photojournalist Harry Benson, who had worked around the globe, blamed Logan’s editors for her assault. He wrote:

The last place for a young, attractive woman to be is in the middle of an extremely dangerous situation surrounded by an angry mob. Not only does it put her in harm’s way, but it compromises her co-workers as well, since they have to try to protect her as best they can—sometimes an impossible task. ^[21]

Others defended Logan’s right to be there. British journalist Lindsey Hilsum, who was also working in Tahrir Square that day, defended women reporters in conflict zones. She wrote:

Now debate has shifted to old territory about whether men and women run different risks as foreign correspondents. Those who hate to see women reporting the big stories disguise their glee as concern, but their message is the same—you shouldn't be out there. … It should be taken for granted that men and women will be reporting stories like the revolution in Egypt, the war in Afghanistan and other major international events. The question is whether there is something especially dangerous about being female and on the frontline. For the most part, I believe the answer is no. ^[22]

The Logan attack shocked Addario. In a later interview, she said that in all her years reporting from Afghanistan she had never known of a colleague being sexually abused. But while she considered Logan’s experience a “tragedy,” Addario said she would not let Logan’s experience deter her own reporting. “I don’t want to be seen as ‘a Woman’ and therefore as someone who is in danger of getting attacked while I’m on the ground,” she said. “As women journalists, we don’t want our gender to get in the way of our coverage.” ^[23]