Al-Jadeed Denies Reporter Abducted in Syria
Al-Jadeed TV denied on Tuesday that its reporter Youmna Fawwaz was kidnapped in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo while covering the severe fighting between government troops and armed rebels.
Fawwaz headed from Syria towards the Turkish territories on Monday night, al-Jadeed said. “She contacted us at 7:00 am from Turkish territories where she is being interrogated by security authorities on how she entered Syria.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had said Fawwaz and two other journalists - an Arab and a Turkish reporter – were missing.
Washington-based al-Hurra television station said Monday it had lost contact with two of its employees working in Syria.
Correspondent Bashar Fahmi and his cameraman Cuneyt Unal had entered Syria early Monday, according to Deirdre Kline, the director of communications for Middle East Broadcasting Networks, which operates al-Hurra. It did not give their nationalities.
"We have seen the YouTube video in which the Free Syrian Army states that al-Hurra correspondent Bashar Fahmi and his cameraman Cuneyt Unal were captured and detained in Aleppo, Syria," Kline said in a statement.
"We have not been able to get in touch with Mr. Fahmi and Mr. Unal since they entered Syria on Monday morning. We are currently working to gather more information about their status," she said.
"The safety and wellbeing of our journalists is of utmost concern to us."
In the YouTube video, Capt. Ahmed Ghazali, a rebel fighter in the northern Syrian city of Aazaz, said the two journalists were captured by Syrian government forces in Aleppo.
Also Tuesday, Japan's government said a Japanese journalist has been killed while covering the civil war in Syria.
Mika Yamamoto, a veteran war correspondent with The Japan Press, an independent TV news provider that specializes in conflict zone coverage, was killed Monday in Aleppo, said Masaru Sato, a spokesman with the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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