A BRITISH JOURNALIST kidnapped by the Taliban while travelling in Pakistan has been freed after six months in captivity.
Asad Qureshi was taken hostage along with the two former Pakistani intelligence officials as they travelled through North Waziristan in northern Pakistan – a Taliban stronghold.
Qureshi was making a documentary film for Channel 4, according to PA.
One of the two Pakistani men kidnapped alongside Qureshi, Khalid Khawaja, was killed a month later. Khawaja had claimed to be a confidante of Osama bin Laden.
A note found with Khawaja’s body said that he was working for the Americans, and anybody else cooperating with them would be killed. The last sign of the third hostage was a video of him alive which was released in July.
26 journalists killed
At the weekend, a Japanese journalist who was being held hostage in Afghanistan was released unharmed after five months, but 2010 has been a bloody year for journalism.
Fifty-two journalists and media workers have been killed this year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, with Pakistan ranked as the deadliest country for journalists (4 killed) this year.
Two journalists were killed in Iraq this week. Over 230 media staff have been killed in the Iraq War, making it the most lethal war for journalists since WWII. Reporters Without Borders (RWB) says that “99 per cent of the 230 murders of journalists and media workers since the US-led invasion of 2003″ remain unpunished.
Ninety-three media professionals have been abducted throughout the war, and around 30 have been been arrested there by the US military.
RWB’s full report on the death toll for the media in the Iraq War can be read here.
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