Abducted

The news of the abduction of 40-year-old radio journalist José Luis Romero in the northwestern state of Sinaloa has caused shock and anger in a region notorious for being the preserve of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the country’s leading criminal and drug-trafficking syndicates. A crime reporter for the Línea Directa radio station, Romero was out shopping in the city of Los Mochis on December 30...

A TV crew working for the French TV station France 3 that was abducted in the northeastern province of Kapisa on December 29. The victims include two French journalists and at least two Afghans, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The security situation in Afghanistan, including the Kapisa region, is such that we cannot rule out any hypothesis,” Paris-based RSF said. “We will have to...

Three journalists, all on assignment for the Guardian, were abducted in December 2009 and released after six days, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting the paper. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, an Iraqi, ad two unnamed Afghan journalists had been planning to interview militants in Afghanistan’s mountainous Kunar province near the border with Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province...

Two Somali correspondents for international media outlets were injured in separate shootings, one in the northeast semi-autonomous region of Puntland, and the other in the capital, Mogadishu, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local journalists and news reports. In the Puntland city of Galkayo, northeast of Mogadishu, a police officer fired on the car of...

A Norwegian freelance journalist and an Afghan colleague were released Thursday after nearly a week in captivity in eastern Afghanistan, according to international news reports. Paal Refsdal had called the Norwegian Embassy in Kabul on November 6 to say he and his translator had been abducted, according to international news reports. Refsdal was making a documentary for Norwegian production...

A leading editor in Yemen has been abducted by security forces. The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS) says that they are concerned for the safety of Editor Mohammed al Maqaleh who was allegedly abducted on September 17 in apparent retribution for reporting on the Sa'ada War. Al Maqaleh is the editor for the opposition Socialist Party's website, Al Eshteraki. On Wednesday last, al Eshteraki...

A New York Times reporter held by the Taliban in Afghanistan was freed during a dramatic airborne commando raid on Wednesday in which his Afghan colleague was killed, officials and the newspaper said. Gunmen snatched Stephen Farrell, who is Irish, and Sultan Munadi, on Saturday while they were reporting on the aftermath of a NATO air strike that killed civilians and dozens of insurgents in the...

The director of Somalia's Universal TV, Ibrahim Mohamed Ali, was abducted Tuesday as he was returning from Afgoye, 30 km north of Mogadishu, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Universal TV is a privately-owned Somali television station based in London. “This kidnapping comes just a few days after a journalist was killed while covering the fighting between government forces and Islamist...

Geo TV and the News daily correspondent Musa Khankhel was shot dead Wednesday in Pakistan's northwest Swat Valley. No group has claimed responsibility for the killing, the first violation of a truce called Monday between the government and local militant groups. Khankhel had been covering a peace march led by Muslim cleric Sufi Muhammad, the father-in-law of local Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah...

Press freedom groups have welcomed the release of a freelance Somali photojournalist and two Somali drivers on Thursday but remain concerned over the fate of two foreign freelance reporters who have been held since their abduction on August 23, 2008, by unknown gunmen. Photojournalist Abdifatah Elmi was working as a fixer and translator for Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian...