WORLD_ SYRIA_ Journalists freed after being held hostage in Syria for 6 months

Journalists freed after being held hostage in Syria for 6 months

By Associated Press
March 30, 2014 | 2:31pm
New York Post



Freed El Mundo Middle East correspondent Javier Espinosa laughs as his son runs towards him after his arrival at Torrejon de Ardoz airbase near Madrid March 30, 2014. Photo: Reuters MADRID — Two Spanish journalists freed after being held hostage for more than six months in Syria by a rogue al-Qaida group returned home Sunday to an emotional welcome from friends and colleagues.

Correspondent Javier Espinosa and photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova arrived in Madrid aboard a Spanish government executive jet, less than 24 hours after calling by telephone from Turkey to say they were out of captivity and safe.

Syria ranks as the most dangerous country in the world for reporters. Media rights groups say nearly 30 journalists have been killed there since the conflict began in March 2011, while dozens more have been kidnapped by both rebels and pro-government forces.

Most of the kidnappings in the past year have taken place in rebel-held territories, particularly in chaotic northern and eastern Syria, where the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has a presence. With the two Spanish journalists now free, there are at least nine more foreign correspondents still missing in Syria as well as 10 Syrian reporters.

It was militants from the Islamic State that abducted Espinosa and Garcia Vilanoa at a checkpoint in the town of Tal Abyad in the eastern province of Raqqa on Sept. 16 as the reporters were trying to leave the country.





Spanish reporters Javier Espinosa, right, and Ricardo Garcia Vilanova.


At a hastily-convened news conference Sunday at El Mundo newspaper’s Madrid headquarters, Espinosa and Garcia Vilanova received a standing ovation. They thanked those present for their support, but said they could not provide details of their captivity or how they won their freedom, saying the matter was “out of our hands.”

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry said the government uses “maximum discretion” when dealing with kidnapped journalists, and would not comment on whether a ransom was negotiated. She spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

For friends and family, word of the journalists’ freedom was reason to rejoice after months of stress. Monica Garcia Prieto, Espinosa’s partner, put it simply in a succinct Tweet: “Pure happiness.”

Journalists are not the only ones who have been targeted for kidnapping. Activists, who do much of the on-the-ground reporting in Syria, are also at risk. Reporters Without Borders says around 20 activists are held by the Islamic State, while an unknown number are held by the government.

The Hanein Network, a militant website that carries al-Qaida statements, issued a plea to the Islamic State in December to release Espinosa and Garcia Vilanova, describing them as “men who risked their lives to report the truth.”

Its home page shows the Spaniards in a soft-focus background. A masked militant of the Islamic State stands in the foreground, holding two cats, in an apparent sentimental appeal for clemency.

Another Spanish reporter who was seized by the Islamic State in September, Marc Marginedas, was released earlier this month.


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