A kidnapped Baghdad correspondent for US-funded Radio Free Iraq, part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) was released after two weeks in captivity, the station said today. Jumana Al-Obaidi, 29, went missing while on her way to an interview in Baghdad on 22 October. Her driver was shot and dumped in the street.
“All of us at RFE/RL are very relieved Jumana’s ordeal is over,” RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin said in a statement.
The station did not say who the kidnappers were nor if they demanded any ransom. RFE/RL said Radio Free Iraq has lost two journalists in Iraq this year, Nazar Abd al-Wahid al-Radhi and Khamail Muhsin Khalaf.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says 123 reporters and 41 other people working as support staff for the media have been killed in Iraq since March 2003. Fifty journalists have been kidnapped.
(Source: Reuters/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
