Concern after Al Jazeera airs troubling new videotape of hostage Jill Carroll

Reporters Without Borders today said it was very worried about kidnapped US journalist Jill Carroll after the pan-Arab satellite TV station Al Jazeera yesterday broadcast another videotape of her appealing for help. “Even if the videotape is extremely disturbing to watch, it is an encouraging sign because it proves that Carroll is still alive,” the press freedom organisation said. “Regardless of the revulsion we may feel for such kidnap methods, this is the moment for relaunching the support campaign. We appeal to news media throughout the world, especially the Arab world, and to Muslim leaders to continue speaking out in support of Carroll.” Two Reporters Without Borders representatives will travel to Doha and Dubai in the coming days to help relaunch the campaign together with the Arab media. Carroll is seen veiled and weeping in the latest videotape, which is just a few seconds long and which, according to an Al Jazeera presenter, was shot on 28 January. She appeals to her family, her colleagues and Americans throughout to world to ask the US military authorities and the Iraqi interior ministry to free all Iraqi women prisoners. The first videotape of Carroll was screened by Al Jazeera on 17 January. Twenty seconds long and with no sound, it showed Carroll in a light grey sweat-shirt apparently talking to the camera. Only her face, neck and shoulders could be seen. Al Jazeera said her abductors, a hitherto unknown group calling itself the “Vengeance Brigade,” had threatened to kill her if all the female detainees in Iraq were not freed within 72 hours. The deadline passed without any news of Carroll. Carroll is a freelance reporter who has been writing for several Jordanian, Italian and US newspapers, including the Christian Science Monitor. She was kidnapped by gunmen at about 10 a.m. on 7 January in the west Baghdad neighbourhood of Adel, where she had gone to meet a Sunni politician, Adnan al-Doulaimi. The body of her interpreter, Allan Enwiyah, was found at the scene of the abduction. He had been shot dead. Thirty-five media workers have been abducted since the start of the war in Iraq in March 2003. Five of the kidnap victims - four Iraqis and an Italian (Enzo Baldoni) - were killed by their abductors. The others were all released safe and sound. Twenty-three of these kidnappings have taken place in or near Baghdad. Carroll is the seventh woman journalist to be kidnapped in Iraq. One, Iraqi national Raeda Wazzan, was killed by her abductors. The others were freed. Despite its name, the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor is not a religious newspaper. It is well known for the quality and thoroughness of both its domestic and international coverage.