The Broadcasting Board of Governors this week issued a
reminder that Bashar Fahmi, a correspondent for U.S.-backed Alhurra TV, is
still missing 150 days after he disappeared in Syria while covering the
fighting there. It also pointed out that still missing in Syria are freelancers
Austin Tice and James Foley and called for anyone with information on them to
come forward.
Fahmi and cameraman Cuneyt Unal went missing Aug. 20. Unal
had been captured and was eventually released. Fahmi was also reportedly
captured, but his whereabouts remain unknown.
Freelance American journalist Austin Tice had filed on the
Syrian conflict for a number of news outlets, including The Washington Post, CBS and Al-Jazeera English before he
disappeared in mid-August. Foley, a U.S. freelance journalist, was kidnapped in
Syria on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22) according
to the Committee to Protect Journalists, although his disappearance was not
reported for several weeks at the request of his family, which then launched an
online campaign to free him.
In its 2012 report on journalists killed, injured or
captured while doing their jobs, CPJ said Syria was the most dangerous posting
in the world.
