There is still no sign of the two Fox News Channel journalists abducted in Gaza six days ago. No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction of the journalists from the US television network, and the kidnappers have made no demands yet.
Correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, a US citizen, and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, a New Zealand citizen, were ambushed on Omar al-Mukhtar Street in the heart of Gaza City on August 14. Two vehicles trapped the journalists' satellite uplink truck marked "TV." Gunmen forced the driver to the ground, and abducted the two journalists. Witnesses told CPJ sources that the journalists were taken in a Mitsubishi Magnum pickup truck. Wiig's wife, BBC World Service presenter Anita McNaught, said negotiations were already under way with their kidnappers.
Ten journalists have been kidnapped in the Palestinian Territories in the past 12 months, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The kidnapping was the first involving foreigners in Gaza since the Hamas-led government was sworn in March.
"I will not leave without him. I hope he is released soon," said Wiig's wife Anita McNaught, a journalist who learned of the abduction after she had just completed an assignment covering the war in Lebanon. "This for me is completely pointless, worse than pointless, it is a completely destructive act," she said.
"I cannot see that it helps anyone, taking two professionals like this and kidnapping them," McNaught said. "They are exactly the sort of people the people of Palestine need, the people of Gaza need to tell their story to the world. By taking them hostage they have taken that from the Palestinian people." On the verge of tears, she said she wanted her husband to know: "We are working very, very hard to get you home and your colleague, too."
About 30 members of the Palestinian Journalists' Union gathered outside the parliamentary building in Gaza on Saturday, holding up signs demanding that the men be freed. Other signs called for security in Gaza, where armed men wander the streets freely. More than two dozen foreigners have been kidnapped by Palestinian militants in Gaza, but most have been released within hours. This is the longest any hostages have been held in the region.
"Our concern for the safety and well being of our colleagues grows every day they are missing," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "We again call on those holding Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig to free them at once. There can be no justification for the targeting of journalists, who are civilians, and who were in this case simply doing their jobs. Palestinian authorities must do everything in their power to help ensure the rapid release of these two journalists."
"We appeal to the kidnappers to release these two journalists," a RSF statement said. "They were just doing their job and can in no way be held responsible for US policy in the region or the Israeli army's operations in the Palestinian Territories or in Lebanon. We also call on the Palestinian authorities to do everything to find Centanni and Wiig and to ensure they return safe and sound to their families."
The Associated Press quoted Palestinian officials as saying it was unusual for the kidnappers not to make any demands. Hamas, the Islamic group that leads the Palestinian government, issued a statement calling the abductions morally reprehensible. Palestinian Interior Minister Saeed Siyam ordered security forces to step up efforts to find the Fox News crew.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) also called for the immediate release of two journalists and condemned "cat and mouse" abductions by extremist Palestinians who take hostages for brief periods, creating a climate of fear among media trying to work freely in the West Bank and Gaza. "We call for the urgent release of our colleagues and an end to the appalling practice of playing cat-and-mouse with the lives of journalists and others," said Aidan White IFJ General Secretary.
IFJ welcomed the intervention of the Palestinian authorities and their efforts to find the Fox journalists, but said that more must be done to protect media staff. A number of journalists and others have been temporarily snatched by armed groups over the past year. The Palestine Journalists Syndicate, an IFJ affiliate, has also condemned the kidnappings and called for the journalists to be freed.
"Journalists in the region and around the world recognise that this criminal activity only harms the Palestinian cause and contributes to the climate of fear that has overtaken much of the region," said White. "We just hope our colleagues are unharmed and will be released as quickly as possible."
Jennifer Griffin, chief Fox News correspondent for the Middle East, called the kidnapping a "test for the Palestinian people." "We don't care who kidnapped them, we want them returned unharmed. This is a very serious case for the Palestinians, for the Palestinian Authority," Griffin told the Washington Post.
Seven other journalists have been kidnapped in Gaza over the last year. All were released unharmed. The last abduction was on March 14 when Caroline Laurent, a reporter for the French weekly ELLE, Alfred Yaghobzadeh, a photographer from the photo agency SIPA, and Yong Tae-young, a correspondent for South Korea's public broadcaster KBS, were seized by gunmen. All three were released unharmed 22 hours later.
Past kidnappings appear to be the work of private individuals or groups seeking to use foreign hostages as bargaining chips to secure the release of colleagues or relatives imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority.
