FRANCE: RSF warns of risks after security officials posed as journalists

Record ID: 573671

  • Title: FRANCE: RSF warns of risks after security officials posed as journalists
  • Date: 16th July 2009
  • Summary: REPORTERS SANS FRONTIERES WEBSITE WITH PAGE ON SOMALIA KIDNAP CASE
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Communications
  • Reuters ID: LVABQMH80XRSLT06HCRSZAKS1QOS
  • Story Text: Reporters Without Borders expressed concern on Wednesday (July 15) after two Frenchmen posing as journalists were kidnapped in Somalia.
    Somali gunmen stormed into a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday (July 14) and kidnapped two French officials working as security advisers for the Somali government, witnesses and officials said.
    Vincent Brossel, a spokesman with the organisation which has fought for press freedoms since it was founded in 1985, called on French authorities to explain why the men falsely identified themselves as a journalists, putting both themselves and real journalists at risk.
    "By mixing identities, people create confusion and increasing the risk. So, we definitely want them to be freed but the French authorities should give us more precise information about the reasons why these two officials portrayed themselves as journalists," Brossel said.
    The French Foreign Ministry confirmed that two French officials working as security advisers to the Somali government had been kidnapped.
    A ministry statement issued in Paris said the men were on an "official mission" when they were seized by a group of armed men.
    "We have evidence that they were portraying themselves as journalists and introducing themselves in Somalia as journalists so we need some clear explanation and we need, I think, for the future a clear commitment that journalism is not a cover, it's work, it's a job, it's a tough job especially in Somalia. So, we don't need additional risk to the work of journalists in Somalia and in dangerous countries," Brossel said.
    With hardline Islamist insurgents battling government troops on a daily basis, Mogadishu is one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
    The coastal capital has a history of kidnappings of foreign aid-workers and journalists.
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