Скачать или смотреть Foreign journalists freed after nearly six weeks in captivity

(4 Jan 2009)
1. British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph reporter Colin Freeman seated in his hotel room in Bosasso
2. Spanish freelance photographer Jose Cendon talking on mobile phone
3. Mid of Freeman and Cendon seated
4. Mid of Spanish Ambassador to Kenya Nicolas Martin Cinto who mediated negotiations for the release
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Abdullahi Said Samatar, Puntland Security Minister:
"All the community of Puntland, we have to express our very sadness about the hijacking of two journalists who really were suffered. In the name of all the community and the government, we are very sorry about what has happened to them. We tried all our efforts, including to make an operation against the kidnappers."
6. Mid of Samatar and Martin Cinto walking
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Colin Freeman, Freed British Reporter from The Sunday Telegraph:
"Absolutely brilliant, yeah. Sorry to the people who have had to work very hard to get us out of here and also very grateful to all the people who have had to work very hard to get us out of here. But at the same time we are both feeling absolutely fantastic. We are looking forward to seeing our families and friends and everything else."
8. Pan right Freeman and Cendon walking towards plane
9. Freeman and Cendon boarding plane
STORYLINE:
Two foreign journalists - a Briton and a Spaniard - were released in good health on Sunday after nearly six weeks in captivity in Bosasso, northern Somalia, officials said.
The journalists, reporter Colin Freeman, 39, of British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph and freelance photographer Jose Cendon, 34, were working on a piracy story when they were kidnapped on November 26.
The Sunday Telegraph's publisher confirmed the two journalists had been freed.
The company would not say whether a ransom had been paid.
Abdullahi Said Samatar, Security Minister of the semiautonomous northern Somali region of Puntland, expressed sadness for the suffering caused to the journalists and said that his government had done all it could to secure their release.
Freeman said he and his colleague were "feeling absolutely fantastic".
He said he felt sorry but also grateful to those who "had to work very hard" for their release.
The newspaper said the men were held in caves in the mountains and moved occasionally as their kidnappers tried to dodge rival gangs or the authorities.
Foreigners, journalists and humanitarian workers are frequently abducted for ransoms in the Horn of Africa nation.
The Associated Press did not previously identify the two journalists out of concern for their safety.
Somali officials have said the men were abducted as they left their hotel for the airport to leave Somalia, likely by local gunmen or their bodyguards.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press that Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos spoke by phone with Cendon and confirmed to the photographer's family that he was released and is in good health.
Spanish Ambassador to Kenya Nicolas Martin Cinto helped in the release negotiations.
The British Foreign Office welcomed the release.
Two freelance journalists, an Australian and a Canadian, kidnapped near the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in August are still being held.
Somalia has not had a functioning government for years and has been beset by anarchy and an insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing.

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