Reporters Without Borders welcomes release of Italian journalist kidnapped

Reporters Without Borders welcomed the release on 10 September of Italian journalist Lorenzo Cremonesi, of the Milan daily paper Corriere della Sera, a few hours after he was kidnapped in the Gaza Strip. Nobody claimed responsibility for his seizure, but the journalist told his paper that he thought the kidnappers were members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed group linked to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Al Fatah movement. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10.09.2005 Concern about kidnapping of Italian journalist in Gaza Reporters Without Borders voiced great concern today at the kidnapping in the Gaza Strip on 10 September of Italian journalist Lorenzo Cremonesi, of the daily paper Corriere della Sera, and called for his immediate release. “This is the second time in less than a month that a foreign journalist has been kidnapped there,” it said. “Local and foreign reporters have to work amid great lawlessness. The Palestinian Authority must make plans to seriously protect journalists when it takes control of the territory. We regret that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has not immediately responded to our request on 25 August to take more effective measures to protect journalists.” Cremonesi, the paper's Arab affairs specialist, was seized in Deir El-Balah by five masked gunmen who witnesses said dragged him out of his car and pushed him into another that drove off towards the Nusseirat refugee camp. Armed men in Gaza kidnapped Mohammed Ouathi, a sound-man for the French TV station France 3, on 14 August and held him until 22 August.