Florence Aubenas is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 journalist, who worked until 2006 for the French newspaper Libération

Libération

Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...

. She was taken hostage on January 5, 2005, in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 along with her translator Hussein Hanoun Al-Saadi

Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi

Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi is an Iraqi interpreter and former colonel in the Iraqi air force, which he left in 1991. He is also qualified as a pilot on the Mirage F1. He was taken hostage on January 5, 2005, in Iraq along with Florence Aubenas, and was freed on June 11, 2005. Born on July 14, 1960 he...

.

On March 1, 2005, her captors released a video tape, in which Aubenas asked for help. She spoke English and declared she was in bad health. In the end of the 26-second video, she mentioned the name of Didier Julia

Didier Julia

Didier Julia is a French politician. He is currently representing the Union for a Popular Movement from Seine-et-Marne in the French National Assembly, a post he has held from 1967...

. The French authorities and Florence Aubenas' family were given another video (on CD-ROM

CD-ROM

A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....

) a week earlier.

Florence and Hussein were freed on June 11, 2005. France allegedly paid $10 million dollars in ransom for their release.

External links

• Profile: Florence Aubenas
• Aubenas freed - IFEX
  International Freedom of Expression Exchange
  The International Freedom of Expression eXchange , founded in 1992, is a global network of around 90 non-governmental organisations that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression....