New York Times hopes 4 of its missing journalists in Libya are alive

PanARMENIAN.Net - The New York Times says it's holding out hope that four of its journalists who went missing while covering the Libyan conflict are alive and in the custody of the Libyan government.

The four were last in contact with editors on Tuesday, March 15, from the northern port city of Ajdabiya where they were covering the retreat of rebels.

"We are grateful to the Libyan government for their assurance that if our journalists were captured they would be released promptly and unharmed," executive editor Bill Keller said in a statement on March 16.

He said there were unconfirmed reports that the journalists had been detained at a government checkpoint between Ajdabiya and Benghazi, a rebel stronghold. If so, Keller said, they would eventually be taken to Tripoli.

"Beyond that, we're still pretty much in the dark," he added, AP reports.

The missing journalists are Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Anthony Shadid, the newspaper's Beirut bureau chief; Stephen Farrell, a reporter and videographer; and photographers Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario. In 2009, Farrell was kidnapped by the Taliban and later rescued by British commandos.