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VIENNA, July 10 (AFP)-A leading media lobby group urged Philippine President Joseph Estrada to do more to protect journalists, after a French television crew became the latest captives of the Abu Sayyaf group. The three French television journalists have been seen in a camp belonging to Galib Andang, an Abu Sayyaf leader believed to be holding most of the group's 40 hostages. The three had reportedly gone to interview the leader when the group detained them. The International Press Institute (IPI) "urges your excellency to do everything in your power to ensure the safe return of the abducted hostages," wrote the Vienna-based institute's director Johann Fritz in an open letter. "We further urge that all possible steps are taken to ensure the safety of journalists covering events in the Philippines," he added. The 12-week hostage crisis began on April 23 with the abduction of 21 people, mostly foreigners, from a Malaysian resort off Borneo Island. Since then, 10 foreign journalists working for German agencies were abducted and later released for a ransom of $25,000, and on July 2, a German journalist from Der Spiegel magazine, Andreas Lorenz, was kidnapped at gunpoint and is still being held. The Philippine government is currently refusing to pay a ransom. |
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