BBG Wants Answers on Missing Journalists

Issues reminder about three journalists still missing in Syria

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/18/2013 9:39:24 AM

The Broadcasting Board of Governors this week issued a reminder that Bashar Fahmi, a correspondent for U.S.-backed Alhurra TV, is still missing 150 days after he disappeared in Syria while covering the fighting there. It also pointed out that still missing in Syria are freelancers Austin Tice and James Foley and called for anyone with information on them to come forward.

Fahmi and cameraman Cuneyt Unal went missing Aug. 20. Unal had been captured and was eventually released. Fahmi was also reportedly captured, but his whereabouts remain unknown.

Freelance American journalist Austin Tice had filed on the Syrian conflict for a number of news outlets, including The Washington Post, CBS and Al-Jazeera English before he disappeared in mid-August. Foley, a U.S. freelance journalist, was kidnapped in Syria on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22) according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, although his disappearance was not reported for several weeks at the request of his family, which then launched an online campaign to free him.

In its 2012 report on journalists killed, injured or captured while doing their jobs, CPJ said Syria was the most dangerous posting in the world.