ITALY: Family and colleagues show support for Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo held in Afghanistan

Record ID: 640857

  • Title: ITALY: Family and colleagues show support for Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo held in Afghanistan
  • Date: 9th March 2007
  • Summary: PROTESTORS IN THE SQUARE LOOKING AT PHOTOGRAPH
  • Embargoed: 24th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVACS5MQS34QNV7WBV3OAW5QNOSX
  • Story Text: A huge photograph portraying kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo has been unfurled outside Rome's town hall. The Taliban have said they are holding Mastrogiacomo on suspicion of spying. More than one hundred people gathered outside Rome's town hall on Thursday (March 8) in a demonstration of support for Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, kidnapped in southern Afghanistan last weekend.
    The newspaper La Repubblica lost contact with its correspondent on Sunday as was on his way to Helmand province, a stronghold of Taliban insurgents. The Taliban said on Tuesday they had kidnapped the journalist who they believed was spying on behalf of British troops in the area.
    Journalists carrying a banner reading: "Daniele don't give up" joined Mastrogiacomo's family and colleagues in the square. They insisted the spying allegation against him was false.
    "There is no confession at all. It's absolutely ridiculous," said La Repubblica Editor Ezio Mauro, referring to allegations by the Taliban that Mastrogiacomo had confessed to spying.
    "Daniele is there to work, as everyone knows. He is there just to work. It is purely his profession that led him there, and it will lead him there again," Mauro said.
    Mastrogiacomo's brother Alessandro said: "He is very experienced and he knows the area very well. He has worked there a lot and he has always been very interested in the Middle East and in the areas hit by the most recent conflicts."
    Following a short ceremony a huge photograph of Mastrogiacomo was unfurled on the facade of the Rome town hall, a tradition for all Italian citizens taken hostage in recent years.
    No further news about the whereabouts of Mastrogiacomo has been forthcoming since the Taliban confirmation of their kidnapping.
    SS/AD
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