Jineth Bedoya Lima, Colombia

On May 25, 2000, Bedoya went to a Bogota-area prison, where she was expecting to interview a paramilitary leader about rumors that she was on his "hit list." While waiting for the interview, Bedoya was kidnapped at gunpoint, drugged, then brutally beaten and repeatedly raped by her captors. That evening a taxi driver found her in a garbage dump, where she had been left with her hands tied.

Though many Colombian journalists have fled for their lives after being repeatedly threatened, Bedoya returned to her job just two weeks after being abducted. She has decided to stay in Colombia and continue reporting, though she now does so under the protection of a bodyguard.