NEW YORK (AP) — Four New York Times journalists who had been held by Libya have been released.
A spokesman for the Turkish Embassy in Washington, Rauf Denktas, says the journalists were handed over to the Turkish ambassador in Tripoli and were expected to cross the border to Tunisia on Monday.
The New York Times also was reporting the release on its website. In a statement, the Times thanked the Turkish, British and U.S. governments as well as members of the Libyan government who helped secure the journalists’ release.
Libyan authorities say the journalists were captured last week by forces loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Ajdabiya during fighting in the eastern part of Libya. The New York Times reported that the four had entered the rebel-controlled area from Egypt without visas, as many Western journalists have.
The journalists are reporter Anthony Shadid, photographers Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario, and a reporter and videographer, Stephen Farrell. In 2009, Farrell was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan and was rescued by British commandos.
Shadid worked previously for The Associated Press, The Washington Post and the Boston Globe. He won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 2004 and 2010 for his coverage of Iraq.
Hicks, a former photographer for The Wilmington Star-News in North Carolina and the Troy Daily News in Ohio, was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 2007 by Pictures of the Year International and won an Infinity award from the International Center of Photography in 2001.
Addario also has worked for National Geographic and Time magazine and was part of The New York Times’ team that won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, known as the Genius Grant, in 2009.
