Journalists Association Urges Kofi Annan for Support

The Journalists Association of Turkey (TGC) addressed UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Special Representative of Syria, to support the search for Turkish journalists Hamit Coşkun and Adem Özköse.

Cameraman Çoşkun and reporter Özköse have been missing in Syria since 11 March.

According to information obtained by Reporters Without Border (RSF), both journalists were abducted together with a group of people on 10 March by Shabiha militiamen who are on the pay role of the Assad government at a checkpoint outside Kefraya, a Shiite village near Bannish, a town just to the northeast of Idlib.

The TGC emphasized that the journalists went to Syria to shoot a documentary and only made journalism. The journalists organization called on Syria to guarantee freedom of the press as a UN member and comply with international agreements accordingly.

Since Kofi Annan has contact to the Syrian leadership, the TGC requested the UN Secretary General help to release the journalists. Annan's office announced to have forwarded the message of the TGC to him.

Also the International Press Institute (IPI) called for the release of the journalists.

Adem Özköse was born in Samsun on the Black Sea Coast in 1978. He is the representative of the Gerçek Hayat magazine for the Middle East.

Hamit Coşkun was born in Karamürsel east of Istanbul in 1991. He is a fourth grade student of the Istanbul University Department of Radio, Cinema and Television. He is working for several media outlets as a cameraman. (NV)