“We are grateful to the Libyan government for their assurance that if our journalists were captured they would be released promptly and unharmed,’’ Keller said.
The White House urged the Libyan government to refrain from harassing or using violence against journalists. Obama spokesman Jay Carney said the United States is firm in its belief that journalists should be protected and allowed to do their work.
The advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said it was asking its correspondents in Libya to help track down the journalists’ whereabouts.
“It’s a very dangerous climate for reporters right now,’’ said Clothilde Le Coz, Washington director for Reporters Without Borders.
“It’s a reminder that these are real people, and they are putting themselves at real risk to bring information out of these places.’’
Pro-Moammar Khadafy forces have largely gained control of Ajdabiya after two days of relentless shelling.All four journalists are veteran war correspondents.
Shadid worked as a foreign correspondent for The Boston Globe from 2000-2002. He was shot in the shoulder on March 31, 2002, while covering an Israeli incursion into Ramallah in the West Bank for the Globe.
After the Globe asked for an investigation by the Israel Defense Forces, the IDF said he was not shot by an Israeli soldier, but was more probably shot by a Palestinian fighter. But other witnesses said there was no apparent crossfire at the time and only one gunshot was heard in the area, which had been under Israeli military control for several days.
Shadid, who also had worked for the Washington Post and Associated Press, won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 2004 and 2010 for his coverage of the Iraq war.
