New York, August 12, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Danish authorities to mount a rigorous, thorough investigation into the disappearance of Kim Wall, a Swedish freelance journalist who was reported missing yesterday while reporting on an amateur-built submarine that sank off the coast of Copenhagen, according to media reports.
“We call on Danish authorities to employ all efforts and resources to carry out an exhaustive inquiry into Kim Wall’s fate and whereabouts,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. “Denmark should not be considered a dangerous assignment for journalists.”
According to a statement Wall’s family shared with CPJ today, the 30-year-old Swedish-born journalist, who was based in New York and Beijing, was working on a story about inventor Peter Madsen when she went missing. Madsen was the owner of the sunk submarine. “It is with a great concern that we, her family, received the news that Kim is missing after an interview with Peter Madsen in Denmark,” the statement said. “We sincerely hope that she will be found and that she is well.”
A Danish court today ordered that Madsen be held in pre-trial detention while authorities investigate Wall’s disappearance, the Associated Press reported. The court decision follows Madsen’s arrest yesterday on preliminary murder charges. The inventor has denied wrongdoing and said that he dropped Wall–who was reported to be the only other person on board the submarine with him–off on an island close to Copenhagen Thursday night before the submarine sank, according to AP reports.