Posted on 03/29/2003 12:57:09 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Seven Italian journalists in Iraq lose contact with offices
Fri Mar 28, 4:06 PM ET
ROME - Seven Italian journalists in Iraq (news - web sites) fell out of contact with their offices Friday after being stopped at an Iraqi checkpoint in the southern city of Basra, reports said.
An Italian state TV reporter said from Kuwait that two of the seven reporters had been arrested by Iraqi authorities, while the fate of the other five was unknown.
The seven journalists — who all work for major Italian newspapers, including Milan's Corriere della Sera and Rome's Messaggero — were trying to get into Basra to report on conditions there.
"Since this afternoon, we haven't had any news. Their satellite phones ring without answer," RAI TV correspondent Sandro Petrone reported from Kuwait City.
Italy's Foreign Ministry said it was "using all useful sources to promptly clarify the journalists' situation and to re-establish contact with them."
Maurizio Belpietro, the editor-in-chief of Milan's Il Giornale, whose reporter is among the missing, said that 10 journalists had been traveling in three vehicles to Basra. They passed a British checkpoint, went over a bridge, then found themselves at a traffic light manned by Iraqi police.
One vehicle hung back, and when the three reporters inside saw that the first two cars were having trouble at the checkpoint, they decided to turn around, Belpietro said. The seven journalists in the first two vehicles have not reported back since then.
RAI said British soldiers in the zone had sent out a patrol to try to find the seven.
Italian state television said the missing reporters are: Franco Battistini of Corriere della Sera; Ezio Pasero of Il Messaggero; Luciano Gulli of Il Giornale; Leonardo Maisano of Milan's Sole 24 Ore; Toni Fontana of Rome's Unita; Lorenzo Bianchi of Bologna's Il Resto del Carlino; and Vittorio dell'Uva of Naples' Il Mattino.
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