Wife of Kidnapped Journalist Issues Plea

The wife of a kidnapped Fox News cameraman made a tearful plea Friday for information about the whereabouts of her husband and a fellow Fox journalist.

Cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand and American reporter Steve Centanni, 60, were taken Monday from their TV van near the Palestinian security services headquarters.

“If somebody knows any information, can you please tell us because I want him home so much,” Wiig’s wife, freelance journalist Anita McNaught, said in her televised appeal.

“He and his colleague, Steve, don’t deserve this. They are good men ... and they should be allowed to come home. Please let him come home. Please,” McNaught said.

In the last two years, kidnappers have seized at least 26 foreigners, including nine members of the media, either to protest Israeli or American policies, use the captives as leverage with the Palestinian Authority for jobs and money or to win the release of imprisoned family members. Most of those kidnapped were released after a few hours.

Palestinian security officials said they were concerned for the Fox journalists because no other foreigners had been held this long and all major militant groups in the Gaza Strip had denied involvement.

“This is the first time kidnappers haven’t identified themselves or their demands,” said Mustafa Wafi, a senior Palestinian security official. “Usually kidnappers announce who they are, sometimes as soon as they kidnap.”