On Wed 16 March the Guardian journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, detained by the Lybian authorities for a fortnight, was finally released. He was picked up in the coastal town of Sabratha on 2 March, along with Andrei Netto, a correspondent for the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S Paulo.

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger revealed to Press Gazette his role in the negotiation, giving credit to Turkey for helping facilitate the release and to Libya for letting them leave the country.

@font-face { font-family: "ＭＳ 明朝"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria Math"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }.MsoChpDefault { font-size: 10pt; }div.WordSection1 { page: WordSection1; } Foreign correspondent Abdul-Ahad, who entered Libya via the Tunisian border over mountains to the west, was in contact with the Guardian on an hourly basis until Sunday 6 March, when he went missing. The paper had no news until Thursday 10 March - Rusbridger revealed - when Andrei Netto reported he had been taken into custody with the Guardian journalist.

"We were pulling every contact that we could in the Foreign Office, Government and security agencies. We then broadened it to the Venezuelans, the Turks, the Maltese - anybody. I managed to speak to Said Gaddafi [Colonel Gaddafi's son] last Saturday who at that point claimed not to know what was going on at all. By the Sunday night we knew that he was being held, that was really all, I thought the only way really of dealing with it was to get to Tripoli myself", Rusbridger told Press Gazette.

Once in Tripoli, with the mediation of Guardian Middle East editor Ian Black and Turks, who had been the major behind-the-scenes players, Guardian editor said, Abdul-Ahad finally has been released.

Rusbridger, Abdul-Ahad and Observer foreign affairs editor Peter Beaumont, of whom Black took over in Tripoli, flew out of Tripoli on Wednesday evening, a day before the imposition of the UN Security Council no-fly zone over Libya.

Previously other two journalists working for the BBC in Libya were arrested by Gaddafi's security forces.

On Monday 21 March the Libyan government also released four New York Times journalists who were captured and detained six days before by pro-Gaddafi forces while covering the unfolding conflict in the east of the embattled country. The New York Times reported that after it reported having lost contact with the four last Tuesday, officials with the Gaddafi government pledged that if they had been detained by the government's military forces, they would be located and released unharmed.

"In a world where most people consume their news safely, perhaps in a comfortable chair on some electronic device, it is worth remembering how dangerous news-gathering has become. Monday's release of four New York Times staff members in Libya was a powerful reminder of the hazards journalists face around the world", said the New York Times in an editorial.

As the Guardian reported on Monday 21 March, a number of foreign journalists are still reported missing in Libya.

"News flows so freely and easily these days -- on Web sites, on cellphone apps, on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube -- that it seems almost effortless. Getting it still requires old-fashioned courage and perseverance", the NYT wrote.

Sources: Guardian (1), (2), (3), (4), Press Gazette, Greenslade's Blog, NYT (1), (2)
Image source: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad by Martin Argles for the Guardian (Guardian)