The New York times says the Libyan government has released
four journalists held captive since last week while covering the conflict with
rebel forces there, but the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
says that 13 other journalists remain either in Libyan custody or unaccounted
for.
The Times said that Beirut
bureau chief Anthony Shadid, photographers Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario,
and reporter/videographer Stephen Farrell had been released into Turkish
custody Monday and were in Tunisia.
CPJ was buoyed by
the new, but less so by the remaining captives and missing. ""Four
journalists from Al-Jazeera, two from Agence France-Presse, and one from
Getty Images are either being detained by Libyan authorities or are
missing," said CPJ Executive
Director Joel Simon in a statement. "Six Libyan journalists are also
missing and unaccounted for. We call on Libyan authorities to release those
journalists in their custody and to assist in efforts to locate those who are
missing."
According to CPJ, in
custody are Al-Jazeera correspondents Ahmed Vall Ould Addin
and Lotfi al-Messaoudi and cameramen Kamel Atalua and Ammar
al-Hamdan. AFP journalists Dave Clark
and Roberto Schmidt and Getty Images photographer Joe Raedle were still
not accounted for as of press time Monday, said CPJ,
and were last heard from March 18.
In addition, at least six local journalists who criticized
the government are said to be missing but believed to be the hands of pro-government
forces. They are Atef al-Atrash; blogger Mohamed al-Sahim; cartoonist
Mohamed al-Amin, Idris al-Mismar; Salma al-Shaab; head of the Libyan
Journalists Syndicate; and Suad al-Turabouls, according to the committee.
Separately, Reporters Without Borders said they were
concerned about yet another journalists, Stephane Lehr, a French freelance
photographer, who was reported missing not long after he arrived in country
Sunday with a French TV crew
