Second French Journalist Arrested
PARIS (AP) - A second French journalist was arrested in Afghanistan, then turned over to Pakistani authorities, Le Figaro newspaper reported Friday.
Aziz Zemouri, a journalist for Le Figaro Magazine, a weekly associated with the daily newspaper Le Figaro, was being held in Pakistan following his arrest by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia, Le Figaro said.
He managed to contact Le Figaro magazine Wednesday to inform them of his situation before the phone line went dead, the newspaper said.
Michel Peyrard of the French weekly Paris Match was apparently still jailed in Afghanistan. Intelligence agents arrested him Tuesday and accused him of being a spy.
Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said Thursday that France was doing "all that's humanly possible" to free Peyrard.
Paris Match managing editor Olivier Royant brought Peyrard's clippings Thursday to the Taliban's embassy in Pakistan to prove that Peyrard was a journalist.
After a 30-minute discussion, one embassy official said he was convinced Michel was a journalist, Royant said on France-Info Radio.
Peyrard was arrested with two Pakistani journalists 20 miles outside of Jalalabad. The private Afghan Islamic Press said he was wearing a burqa, the full length veil that the Taliban require women to wear in public.
The Taliban ordered all foreign journalists to leave the country after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
In Brussels, Belgium, the world's largest organization of journalists called Friday for Peyrard's release.
The International Federation of Journalists also said it was concerned about the amount of pressure the United States and other governments were putting on journalists reporting on the crisis.
"Journalists are being bullied and harassed by all sides in a conflict that calls for professionalism and independence from media _ not propaganda and censorship," the organization's general-secretary, Aidan White, said in a statement.
The group expressed concern over Washington's request that media organizations use caution in using footage from the Arab media satellite channel, Al Jazeera.
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice asked major U.S. television networks earlier this week not to broadcast transmissions from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist group without first screening and possibly editing them. U.S. officials fear bin Laden is using taped statements to transmit coded messages to his operatives around the world.
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