Family of kidnapped Palestinian journalist appeals for help

The family of a Palestinian journalist who was kidnapped 16 months ago in the Philippines on Friday appealed to rights organizations to do more for his release. Baker Atyani, Al-Arabiya's TV bureau chief for Southeast Asia, was kidnapped in June 2012 by the Abu Sayyaf group while filming a documentary in the the Philippines. The journalist's wife Um Khalid, who lives in Jordan with their four children, said the family had urged organizations and officials to help free him to no avail. Atyani holds Jordanian citizenship but his family is from Anza village in the northern West Bank. "The family in Anza is really worried and has sent pleas to President Abbas and the King Abdullah Jordan, and efforts have been made to release him," his brother Mahmoud Atyani told Ma'an. He criticized the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and the journalists' union in Jordan for failing to intervene or act for his brother's release.