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Libya to release four New York Times reporters

18 March 2011 19:20 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Libya on Friday promised to release four New York Times journalists its forces captured three days ago, according to broadcast reports, APA reports quoting â€œMonsters and Criticsâ€.
Moamer Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, said in an interview with ABC News that the journalists were to be set free Friday. Libya said the four entered Libya’s rebel-controlled areas without visas like many other Western journalists trying to cover the events in the country.
’We’re all, families and friends, overjoyed to know they are safe,’ said Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, in an article published online by the newspaper. ’We are eager to have them free and back home.’
Gaddafi’s son told ABC that the four were detained when Libyan forces ’liberated the city of Ajdabiya’ from opposition rebels and found Lynsey Addario, a Times photographer. Gaddafi referred to the rebels as ’terrorists.’
’But then they were happy because they found out she is American, not European,’ Gaddafi said. ’And thanks to that, she will be free tomorrow.’
The Times said Libyan government officials had informed the US State Department Thursday evening that all four would be released. The journalists were also allowed to call their families.
The journalists are Anthony Shadid, The Times’ Beirut bureau chief and a two-time Pulitzer-prize winning foreign correspondent; two photographers, Tyler Hicks and Addario, who have extensive experience in war zones; and a reporter and videographer, Stephen Farrell, who in 2009 was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan and was rescued by British commandos.