Relief at Micah Garen's release

Reporters Without Borders today voiced relief about the release yesterday of American journalist Micah Garen and his Iraqi interpreter, Amir Doshe, who were kidnapped by a group of Iraqi militants on 14 August in the southern city of Nasiriyah. But the organisation said it was still concerned about three other journalists from whom there has been no word for several days: Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale (RFI), Georges Malbrunot of the French daily newspapers Le Figaro and Ouest France and Enzo Baldoni of the Italian newspaper Diario. "We are deeply relieved to learn of Micah Garen's release and we thank everyone who intervened on his behalf, especially Moqtada al-Sadr," Reporters Without Borders said, referring to the Shiite cleric whose followers have been fighting US troops. "But we are still very worried about the lack of news from two French journalists and an Italian journalist," the organisation added. "Their disappearance has revived concern about the abductions that have taken place in recent weeks in Iraq, in which journalists have been among the victims, and it highlights the lack of respect for their neutrality by the various combatants." Release of Micah Garen Garen and Doshe were finally released yesterday, as predicted the day before by Sheikh Raed al-Kazemi, a close aide of al-Sadr. Al-Kazemi had told Agence France-Presse (AFP) he was still in contact with Garen's abductors and that, "I can say that he will be released in two days." They were freed outside al-Sadr's office in Nasiriyah and taken to the governor's office. They had been kidnapped eight days before while visiting one of the city's markets. The pan-Arab TV station Al-Jazeera broadcast a video on 18 August in which Garen's kidnappers threatened to execute him if US forces did not pull out of the holy city of Najaf within 48 hours. An al-Sadr aide said on 20 August that Garen's kidnappers told him they would release him after prayers that day. Garen said in a video broadcast by Al-Jazeera that he was being well-treated by his kidnappers. Garen was making a film about cultural history and protection of ancient sites in war zones for his own New York-based production company, Four Corners Media, which supplies film, photo and written reports for major US media. Three missing journalists There has been no word of Malbrunot (left) and Chesnot (centre) for three days and their employers have voiced concern. Le Figaro deputy foreign editor Jean-Louis Validire told Reporters Without Borders he was "rather anxious" about Malbrunot, who has been working in Iraq since 9 August and who has not been reachable since 20 August. Validire said he thought Malbrunot and Chesnot may have tried to go to Najaf and were unable to reach their editors for this reason. There has been no news of Baldoni (right) since 19 August, after he left Baghdad for Najaf with an Italian Red Cross convoy and a TV crew with the Italian public broadcaster Rai Uno, who eventually turned back because of the risks. Pino Scaccia of Rai Uno said Baldoni, who had no satellite phone, decided to press on alone to Najaf with the aim of interviewing al-Sadr. A member of the Diario editorial staff, Gianni Barbacetto, was quoted by AFP as saying there was a report that Baldoni's driver-interpreter was found dead. This has not been confirmed, but "if true, we would have reason to be alarmed." Barbacetto told AFP.