Qld: Kidnapped journalists reported unharmed

AAP General News (Australia)
08-27-2008
Qld: Kidnapped journalists reported unharmed

BRISBANE, Aug 27 AAP - An Australian and a Canadian journalist kidnapped by Islamist
insurgents in Somalia together with their translator have not been harmed, an organisation
that defends media freedom says.

The Canadian Press reported that the Paris office of Reporters Without Borders had
obtained details about the condition of 35-year-old Australian photo journalist Nigel
Brennan, 26-year-old Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Landhout and Somali reporter
Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, who worked as their translator.

They were kidnapped at gunpoint about 25km from the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday.

A spokesman for Reporters Without Borders in Montreal Dennis Trudeau said the three
were apparently uninjured.

"What we have been able to glean is that the journalists - the Canadian, the Australian
and the Somali - are unharmed, they have their clothes, they're getting food regularly
and they may even have access to satellite TV," Mr Trudeau told The Canadian Press.

"I can't say more than that.

"You can understand that the group may be afraid of a possible armed mission to rescue
the journalists."

The group was believed to be in an area about 80km outside of Mogadishu.

Mr Trudeau said no ransom demand had been made yet but the kidnappers may be from the
Air clan, a dissident part of one of the Somali clans.

Journalists and humanitarian workers are frequently abducted for ransom in Somalia,
one of the world's poorest and most violence-torn countries.

Australian Federal Police and extra diplomatic staff have been sent to Somalia to investigate
the kidnapping of the journalists, who are believed to have been abducted as they came
back from interviewing and taking photos at a refugee camp in Afgoye district.

AAP rad/pjo/srp/bwl

KEYWORD: SOMALIA BRENNAN

2008 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.