Florence Aubenas says talking to a fellow captive earned her a whupping during her five months as a hostage in Iraq.

An excerpt from the BBC story:

Ms Aubenas seemed relaxed and made jokes, but sometimes close to tears as she recounted her ordeal publicly for the first time since her arrival in Paris.

She said she and her guide were kidnapped by five armed men. She was subjected to a mock trial, asked about her political views and then accused of being a spy.

Little is publicly known of the identity of the kidnappers, who issued no ransom demands.

Ms Aubenas said they identified themselves to her as members of a Sunni "religious movement".

No-one ever spoke to me about money, she said.

"What I can tell you is that I was in a basement cell for five months." Life in her cell was "long to live through, but short to talk through", she said.