A day after a journalists’ lobby reported that Japanese freelancer Jumpei Yasuda is being held for ransom in Syria, the government found itself again scrambling to determine his whereabouts.
Some Japanese journalists criticized the lobby, France-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), for making the disclosure, saying it would put the journalist at greater risk.
On Wednesday, RSF announced that Yasuda's captors have "started a countdown for the payment of a ransom, failing which they are threatening to execute him or sell him to another terrorist group."