New York, April 16, 2004—Three Czech journalists abducted on Sunday, April 11, outside Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, have been released, according to several new sources.
Michal Kubal and cameraman Petr Klima, both of the public network Czech Television, and Vit Pohanka, of the public station Czech Radio, were kidnapped while en route from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan. News sources quoted the driver of the three as saying that armed Iraqi insurgents had kidnapped the journalists.
Reuters quoted a Czech Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that the three journalists are in good health at the Czech Embassy in Baghdad.
French journalist Alexandre Jourdanov and Japanese journalist Soichiro Koriyama, who were also abducted, have been released in recent days. The journalists were among the several dozen foreigners reportedly missing or abducted by insurgents in Iraq.
CPJ is trying to confirm the status of Japanese freelance journalist Jumpei Yasuda, of the newspaper Tokyo Shimbun, who was reportedly abducted on Wednesday, April 14, along with a Japanese activist outside Baghdad while driving to Abu Ghraib, west of the capital, to film a downed U.S. Apache helicopter.
