AMEJA is pleased to learn that honorary AMEJA board member Anthony Shadid and three other New York Times journalists, Tyler Hicks, Lynsey Addario, and Stephen Farrell have been released from detention in Libya.  We wish their safe return to their families and colleagues.

AMEJA wishes that the detention of Shadid and his colleagues was an isolated incident, but we know all too well that journalists are often targeted by forces that do not want a story reported, or, as a a seemingly soft target to press organizations or governments to meet certain demands.

Given the fact that so many AMEJA members have connections to, or work in volatile parts of the world, it is an unfortunate reality that all too often, members and their journalist colleagues find themselves in dangerous or unsavory circumstances.

AMEJA is always concerned about detention, harassment, or violation of journalists everywhere.  Regardless of the reasons a government, group, or individuals might give for molesting journalists, AMEJA expects them to be afforded every protection they might be entitled to under law, whether local, national, or international.  And we expect that every effort be made to ensure their safety in any circumstance.