08 May 2016•Update: 12 May 2016
By Alyssa McMurtry
MADRID
Three Spanish journalists who were abducted while covering the war in Syria have made it safely back home, the Spanish government said Sunday.
Images show family and friends greeting Jose Manuel Lopez, Angel Sastre, and Antonio Pampliega, who arrived via Turkey to an airbase north of Madrid Sunday morning after spending nearly 10 months in captivity.
Spain’s government thanked Turkey, Qatar, and other “allies and friends” who they said were instrumental in achieving the reporters' release.
The three experienced freelance reporters were kidnapped on July 12, 2015 alongside their translator. They were kidnapped in Aleppo, where their van was intercepted by an armed group of men wearing Afghan-style clothes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
It was assumed but not confirmed that they were abducted by the Al-Nusra Front.
Until Saturday night, when news broke they were freed, few details were made public about their situation.
“When I talked to him on the phone it was marvelous,” Maria del Mar Rodriguez Vega, the mother of Antonio Pampliega, told Reporters Without Borders late Saturday night. “He had the same voice as always, the same voice he had when he was a child, constantly asking me to forgive him for what he made me go through.” She said her first order of business will be to make Antonio’s favorite dish – spinach with béchamel sauce.
Although these journalists are now free, the same cannot be said of at least 139 journalists and 47 bloggers and citizen journalists who have lost their lives in Syria, according to Reporters Without Borders. This list includes the U.S.’ James Foley and Japan’s Kenji Goto Jogo, who were both publicly beheaded by Daesh.
Syria has become the world’s deadliest country for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders.
“Professional and citizen-journalists alike are now caught between the various parties to the conflict – both the regime and its allies and the various armed opposition groups, including the Kurds and Jihadi fighters such as ‘Islamic State’ [Daesh]. Frequent intimidation, arrests, abductions, and murders constitute an extremely grim environment for the media,” said Reporters Without Borders about Syria.
Currently there are 54 journalists held captive throughout the world – 26 in Syria and 10 in Iraq, according to the group.
“It’s a relief to say that there aren’t any more Spanish journalists being held captive in Syria. Regrettably we can’t say the same about other foreign correspondents and overall, of the local informants,” said Malén Aznárez, the head of Reporters Without Borders Spain.
