AFP, Getty Images journalists missing in eastern Libya

[News_Editor]

AFP, Getty Images journalists missing in eastern Libya

2011-03-21 00:30:34 GMT+7 (ICT)

PARIS (BNO NEWS) -- Two correspondents working for the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency have gone missing while covering unrest in the eastern Libyan city of Tobruk. A photographer working for Getty Images is also missing.

AFP said in a statement on Sunday that AFP journalists Dave Clark, 38, and Roberto Schmidt, 45, were last heard from on Friday evening when they told their senior editors in an e-mail that they planned to travel to a region near Tobruk on Saturday in an attempt to meet opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. They also planned to speak to refugees fleeing the civil war.

Clark and Schmidt were accompanied by Joe Raedle, a photographer working for the Getty Images agency, when they went missing. "The three journalists have not been heard of since sending the email Friday night," AFP said in a statement.

AFP said Clark is based at AFP headquarters in Paris and has been reporting from Libya since March 8. Schmidt, a photographer in the Nairobi bureau, has been in eastern Libya since February 28.

Meanwhile, three New York Times journalists also remain missing in Libya and are believed to be in the custody of pro-government forces. Earlier promises from the Libyan government to release them have not been acted upon.

On Saturday, Al Jazeera Television said four of its journalists, including a Norwegian and a Briton, are being held in the Libyan capital of Tripoli after being arrested in the country's west.

Libya is currently in the midst of a civil war which has so far claimed at least 1,000 and as many as 10,000 lives. The Libyan government has previously compared Western journalists to al-Qaeda supporters and said they could not guarantee their safety.

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