More Journalists Missing In Libya

 

NEW YORK, NY (March 20, 2011) – As U.S. and U.K. forces send Tomahawk cruise missiles into Libyan air defense targets for a second day as part of the United Nations' enforcement of a no-fly zone, three more journalists have been reported missing and there is no further word on the release of four missing New York Times journalists from last week.

The three new missing journalists are Getty Images photojournalist Joe Raedle, an American based in south Florida, and Agence France-Press photographer Roberto Schmidt from Nairobi and reporter Dave Clark from Paris.

Raedle, 45, is a former South Florida Sun Sentinel staff photographer with years of experience covering wars and global disasters. Schmidt has south Florida ties as well, having graduated from the University of Miami. Raedle has worked for Getty since 2001 and has photographed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Schmidt has worked for AFP since 1989, and he's been posted in Nairobi as AFP's chief photographer for East Africa.

AFP said the trio went missing Friday while working near the eastern city of Tobruk, not far from the Egyptian border. On Friday they sent an eMail saying they planned to head 22 miles out of Tobruk to cover rebels and to speak with refugees who are fleeing the combat zones.

Still missing since last Tuesday are New York Times photojournalists Lynsey Addario and Tyler Hicks, videographer and reporter Stephen Farrell, and Beirut bureau chief Anthony Shadid.

And the Al-Jazeera network reported that four of its journalists, including a Briton and a Norwegian, were detained in western Libya and are being held in Tripoli.

The Libyan government let the four New York Times journalists each make one phone call of a minute or less to their families on Thursday evening, but since then there has been no word from them.

On Friday the son of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi told an ABC journalist that the four New York Times journalists were being held by forces loyal to the Libyan leader and would be released.

But then hours later a U.N. resolution to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya came alive with French fighter jets attacking Libyan air defense sites and U.S. an U.K. Tomahawk cruise missiles began raining down on Libyan targets through the night. There's been no additional contact from the journalists, no new word from the Libyan government, and apparently they have not been released.

Today the U.S. State Department released an advisory recommending against news media organizations sending journalists into Libya at this time.

A State Department spokesperson said no U.S. officials are in Libya now and that any U.S. citizens still there should leave immediately.

 

Read earlier coverage of the missing New York Times journalists

 

 

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