Libya: kidnapped Italian journalists are freed

Four Italian journalists have been describing their kidnap ordeal at the hands of armed men thought to be loyal to Colonel Gaddafi.

Their car was stopped in Tripoli on Wednesday and their driver shot dead. But they were later freed unharmed by another group of Gaddafi loyalists, to the relief of the reporters’ colleagues back home.

It followed a raid on the apartment in which they had been held.

Acknowledging the risks and dangers involved, Rome resident Maria Lalli said it is right that journalists “are in these places to get the news.”

“It is a choice,” said fellow local resident Chiara Deangelis. “Every job has its good and bad side and they all need to be accepted, in my opinion.”

Former colonial power Italy was once Colonel Gaddafi’s closest European ally. But Rome has courted the rebels since switching sides after NATO’s bombing campaign began.

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