Family holds hope for journalist taken in Syria
Six years after American journalist Austin Tice went missing in Syria, his family and the US government believe he is still alive.
Tice’s family spent the anniversary of his disappearance on Tuesday publicising efforts to bring their son home, believing that keeping the case in the spotlight will ensure the US government stays focused on his release.
“It is time to see Austin walk free,” said his mother, Debra Tice.
The former marine and freelance reporter was 31 and working for The Washington Post, McClatchy News, CBS and other news organisations when he was detained at a checkpoint near Damascus on August 14, 2012. A month later he appeared in a video, blindfolded and in the custody of an unknown group of armed men.
Since then there has been no official information on whether he is alive or dead.
“It seems like, in many ways, the time has gone so quickly, but we know that for Austin it must be grinding on,” Mrs Tice told NBC.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US government remained deeply concerned about his well-being and was actively working to bring him home.
Every international organisation working for press freedom has Tice as their priority case, Ayman Mhanna, director of the SKeyes Centre for Media and Cultural Freedom in Lebanon, told The National.
“If there is one reason to believe that he will come back safely it’s because of the passion of his family,” Mr Mhanna said.
Reporters Without Borders was working closely with the Tice family to bring Austin home, its North America director, Margaux Ewen, told The National.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Syria remained one of the most dangerous countries in the world for reporters.
More than half the 54 foreign reporters being held hostage worldwide are in Syria, and seven journalists were killed there in the first half of this year.