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Alert

RSF expresses deep concern after Al-Jazeera shows video of Romanians and threats by abductors

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF and its Romanian partner organisation, the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA), have voiced "enormous concern" and reiterated their support for the families of the three Romanian journalists held hostage in Iraq after the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television station broadcast a new video of them on 22 April 2005, and said their abductors were threatening to kill them if Romania did not pull out its troops from Iraq within four days.

"We feel great anxiety at the sight of these three hostages handcuffed, thin, bare foot and with guns pointed at their heads," the two organisations said. "We share the agony felt by their families, friends and media colleagues. We reiterate our confidence in the Romanian authorities who, we are convinced, are doing everything possible to find a solution. By demanding the withdrawal of Romania's troops from Iraq, kidnappers are once again putting journalists at the centre of an intolerable act of blackmail."

RSF and the MMA added, "Marie-Jeanne Ion, Sorin Dumitru Miscoci and Eduard Ovidiu Ohanesian are not spies and should not have to bear the consequences of a governmental decision. We call on the abductors to distinguish between journalists' essential work on the ground and Romania's political decisions."

The poor-quality video broadcast by Al-Jazeera on 22 April showed the journalists for the first time since a videotape was released the day after their abduction on 28 March. Their abductors, who are calling themselves "The Brigade of Mouadh Ibn Jabal," gave the Romanian government four days, beginning 22 April, to withdraw its troops, failing which the hostages would be killed.

Al-Jazeera reported that, in the video, Ion called on the Romanian people to pressure the Romanian government. A separate sequence showed the fourth hostage, Mohamed Munaf, who was acting as the journalists' guide, calling on US President Georges W. Bush to intervene to ensure his release.

Ion, 32, a reporter with the Bucharest-based television station Prima TV, Miscoci, 30, a Prima TV cameraman, and Ohanesian, a reporter with the privately-owned newspaper "Romania Libera", were kidnapped with their guide on 28 March, five days after arriving in Iraq.