Having spent over 30 years in the 'Media' I try to keep my eye on what is happening to the guys and girls, overseas
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| Guardian journalist missing in Iraq http://www.bbfans.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=22777 |
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| Author: | trolleydolley [ 19 Oct 05, 23:33 ] |
| Post subject: | Guardian journalist missing in Iraq |
A journalist for the Guardian newspaper is thought to have been kidnapped after going missing in Iraq. It is believed Baghdad correspondent Rory Carroll may have been abducted by armed men while on assignment in the capital, a Guardian statement said. The paper said it was urgently seeking information about the 33-year-old Republic of Ireland national. Mr Carroll was coming to the end of a year-long assignment in Iraq. He was previously South Africa correspondent. Just wanted to post something about this. Please keep Mr Carroll in your thoughts and prayers. cheers |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 20 Oct 05, 7:56 ] |
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Guardian journalist abducted in Baghdad The Guardian's Iraq correspondent, Rory Carroll, was last night missing after being kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad. Carroll, 33, an experienced foreign correspondent, had been conducting an interview in the city with a victim of Saddam Hussein's regime. He had been preparing an article for today's paper on the opening of the former dictator's trial yesterday. Carroll, who was accompanied by two drivers and a translator, was confronted by the gunmen as he left the house where he had been carrying out the interview. He and one of the drivers were bundled into cars. The driver was released about 20 minutes later. Carroll has been in Iraq since January. He volunteered for the assignment and his coverage has been critical of the US-led coalition. Before Iraq, he had been the paper's correspondent in Africa, based in Johannesburg, since 2002. In the previous three years he had been based in Rome, where he covered the aftermath of the Kosovo war. He was born in Dublin, attended university there and worked for various Irish papers before moving to London. He has an Irish passport. The Irish government was last night in contact with its embassies throughout the Middle East to try to secure help in finding him. Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian's editor, said: "We're deeply concerned at Rory's disappearance. He is in Iraq as a professional journalist - and he's a very good, straight journalist whose only concern is to report fairly and truthfully about the country. We urge those holding him to release him swiftly - for the sake of his family and for the sake of anyone who believes the world needs to be kept fully informed about events in Iraq today." guardian |
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| Author: | JimD [ 20 Oct 05, 21:53 ] |
| Post subject: | Guardian journalist freed in Iraq |
Guardian Thursday October 20, 2005 Rory Carroll, the 33 year-old Guardian journalist kidnapped yesterday in Baghdad, was freed tonight. The news of his freedom came in a telephone call from Carroll to his parents, Jo and Kate, at their home in Dublin. His father Jo said: "He told me that he had been released, that he was perfectly OK and in an Iraqi government compound having a beer. "He just said: 'I am safe and well and I have all my limbs on. I was in my cell and representatives of the Iraqi government came for me, they had a government car waiting. I have been in Baghdad all the time'." |
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| Author: | trolleydolley [ 20 Oct 05, 23:05 ] |
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that's fantastic news - thanks for posting that Jim I used to work in the newspaper industry and this guy is also the same age as me so it got to me a bit. I'm so pleased he is safe. |
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| Author: | JimD [ 21 Oct 05, 0:04 ] |
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Having spent over 30 years in the 'Media' I try to keep my eye on what is happening to the guys and girls, overseas
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| Author: | Molly [ 21 Oct 05, 0:23 ] |
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I saw that on the news earlier. EXCELLENT result. Well done to all involved. |
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| Author: | JimD [ 21 Oct 05, 0:47 ] |
| Post subject: | Journalist freed in Iraq, wants to stay |
Friday Oct 21 08:08 AEST An Irish journalist freed after 36 hours in the hands of Baghdad kidnappers said he wanted to continue reporting on Iraq. Rory Carroll, 33, a correspondent for the London-based Guardian newspaper, said his ordeal ended when his captors bundled him into a car and dropped him in central Baghdad after taking a mobile phone call. "The next move is unclear but I would like to report on Iraq in the future," Carroll told Reuters by telephone shortly after his release. Carroll, who has been in Iraq since January, had been interviewing a family in Baghdad on Wednesday about the start of Saddam Hussein's trial before gunmen abducted him. Full story in ninemsn |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 21 Oct 05, 7:50 ] |
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Abducted Guardian journalist is freed Rory Carroll, the Guardian journalist kidnapped in Baghdad on Wednesday, was freed last night after 36 hours in captivity in a dark underground cell. Carroll phoned the Guardian to confirm that his captors, whom he described as Shia opportunists, had released him into the hands of the Iraqi government. The end came when one of his captors received a mobile phone call and unbolted the door to the cell, telling him he was free to go. "He put me in the boot of his car and drove me alone and dropped me in the middle of Baghdad," Carroll said. Last night he was under the protection of the Iraqi government in the heavily fortified Green Zone. "I'm sitting having a beer and I feel absolutely fine - both physically and psychologically. I've been very well treated, apart from a bit of initial roughness when they first took me," he said. Carroll, 33, who has been in Iraq for nine months, had been in Sadr City, a Shia-dominated district of Baghdad on Wednesday, interviewing a victim of Saddam Hussein. He was snatched by gunmen as he was leaving the home of the interviewee. "They took me in a car and after 20 minutes switched me to the boot of another one. They stripped me of all my own clothes and dressed me in old clothes." He said he had been handcuffed and held in a room beneath a family home in Baghdad for 36 hours. "It was a darkened room, a concrete passageway beneath the ground floor. I only had a rug and pillow. They allowed me out twice for food." "They were Shia," he said. "At one point I was told I would be used as a bargaining chip in exchange for [Shia cleric Moqtada] al-Sadr people taken in Basra. My fear was that I would be sold on to the Sunni or Islamist groups." Speaking about his release last night, he said: "I heard a captor in the corridor answer his mobile. He laughed and sounded relieved and opened the bolted door and said, 'I am going to let you go'." Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian, said: "We're overjoyed that Rory has been released safe and sound. We'd like to thank all those in London, Dublin and Iraq who played a role in freeing him. Both the British and Irish governments have been extremely helpful - as have many journalistic colleagues around the world and sympathetic groups and individuals in Baghdad." A campaign had been building up in support of Carroll, an Irish citizen. Muslims, Roman Catholic and Protestant clerics, as well as the Irish and British governments had called for and worked for his freedom. Lara Marlowe, the Irish Times correspondent in Baghdad, told the Irish state broadcaster, RTE, that a few of Rory's friends had gathered in his office in his hotel, waiting for a phone call. "It is a huge relief, everyone here is happy and celebrating his freedom." Elation and relief swept through the Carroll family home in Dublin too. "He was so calm on the phone. He sounded like he'd just got back from a trip to the shops," said his mother, Kathy, who celebrated her birthday yesterday. Sister Karina marks her birthday today. The champagne was flowing last night. "We couldn't quite believe it," said Joe Carroll. "After two awful days of sitting around waiting for something to happen, to hear his voice on the line was beyond our wildest dreams. We never lost hope, we've had prayers and good wishes come in from all over Ireland and beyond, and we'd just like to thank everyone who called and everyone who worked so hard to get Rory free." The Carrolls praised the efforts of the Irish and British governments as well as the many members of the international media who had offered assistance. Among the visitors to the Carroll home yesterday was the Irish foreign minister, Dermot Ahern, who had informed the family of the five-man delegation the government had planned to send to Baghdad today to negotiate Rory's release. Mr Ahern said of the Irish effort to free Carroll: "We had quite good contacts. We were also using a lot of our EU partners, particularly Britain, France and Italy ... The British were excellent in all that they did in getting us to the right contacts in order to speak to the right people to insist that Rory was Irish and not British." "I am utterly delighted for Rory Carroll and his family," Mr Ahern said. There were warm wishes from unexpected quarters too. The Iranian government had issued a rare plea calling for his immediate release. The government, whose relations with the US and Britain have been more strained than usual during the past few months, had offered its prayers for his safe release. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent cleric based in Qatar, said the Union of Islamic Scholars, which he presides over, "has always denounced these kidnappings, especially those carried out against journalists". He added: "The Guardian newspaper is well-known for its professional reporting and its fair coverage of the rights of oppressed peoples and just causes around the world." Inayat Bunglawala, a representative of the Muslim Council of Britain, had joined the calls. "All leading Islamic authorities have made it clear that kidnapping journalists is unhelpful and harmful to the Iraqi people," he said. "The Guardian is deeply respected within the British Muslim community for its balanced coverage of the Middle East and for providing a platform for a range of voices." In Baghdad, meanwhile, Iraqi journalists held an impromptu memorial service yesterday for Muhammad Haroon, 37, the editor of al-Hakeka newspaper, who was killed by unknown gunmen on Monday. The paper had been critical of the Iraqi government and the US-led coalition's presence in Iraq. guardian |
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