International
Koji Sasahara / AP Photo
Japanese government officials declined to comment Thursday on a reported ransom demand for a Japanese freelance journalist who has been missing since summer in Syria.
The France-based nonprofit group Reporters Without Borders (RWB) said earlier this week that it had learned that those holding journalist Jumpei Yasuda have started a countdown for a ransom payment, and are threatening to kill him or sell him to another armed group.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters at his daily morning briefing that Japan is doing its utmost to deal with the situation, but he wouldn't confirm any details.
RWB, in a statement posted on its website, said Yasuda was kidnapped by an armed group in an area controlled by the Jabhat Al-Nusra a few hours after crossing the border into Syria in early July. Jabhat Al-Nusra, which is also known as Al-Nusra Front, is a top rival of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
RWB is calling on the Japanese government to do everything possible to obtain his release.
Another freelance journalist, Kenji Goto, was among two Japanese killed in Syria by ISIL in January after a hostage drama that gripped Japan for more than a week.
The other Japanese hostage at the time was Haruna Yukawa, a 42-year-old adventurer. He was captured in Syria in the summer of 2014. Yukawa was killed before Goto, who was thought to have been taken hostage in late October 2014 after going there to try to rescue Goto.
Yasuda went to Syria in part to report on Goto's execution, who was his friend, according to the RWB statement.
The drama surrounding the deaths of Yukawa and Goto stunned Japan and ignited renewed debate about the island nation’s role in the Middle East. Japan’s pacifist constitution has generally translated into token military support for the U.S. “war on terror.”
A total of 54 journalists are currently held hostage worldwide, 26 of them in Syria, according to RWB. The world’s most dangerous country for media personnel, Syria is ranked 177th out of 180 countries in the 2015 RWB press freedom index.
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