Kidnapped Australian journalist 'just kept talking' until freed

BAGHDAD - Iraqi militants threatened to kill an Australian journalist and interrogated him for more than 20 hours after kidnapping him outside a Baghdad hotel.

John Martinkus, a veteran freelancer who has written for the Herald and covered conflicts from East Timor to Iraq, was released unharmed yesterday, a day after he was taken hostage by four Sunni militants and ex-Iraqi Army officers.

Martinkus was filming a report for the SBS channel in Australia and was preparing to leave Iraq when he was detained outside a hotel popular with foreign correspondents.

He said he had been released unharmed, but his life had been threatened.

"I can't say very much but ... of course they said they were going to kill me," Martinkus said after his release.

He said he was treated well once he had told his kidnappers he was independent and not linked to the United States-led coalition in Iraq.

"I told them what I was doing and I wasn't armed," he said.

"I was able to establish that I was an independent journalist reporting what was going on and that I had no links to the coalition."

Asked how he coped with the situation, Martinkus said: "I just kept talking."

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the journalist, whom he did not name, was captured when he went to an area of Baghdad against advice.

"In this particular case, the journalist went out to investigate a story, I understand, and went to a part of Baghdad that he was advised not to go to, but he went there anyway," Downer said.

But Martinkus denied he was in a no-go area.

"That is ridiculous because I was in the street outside the only hotel in Baghdad occupied by journalists ... which is directly across the road from the Australian Embassy," he said.

"I was nowhere dangerous, I was doing nothing dangerous, I was not putting myself at risk.

"I was grabbed by insurgents who were very well organised."

He is the second SBS journalist to disappear briefly in the strife-torn region this year.

In late June, SBS lost contact for several days with reporter Carmela Baranowska, who was feared kidnapped by the Taleban during her trip to Afghanistan. She was later found unharmed.

Australia has just under 400 personnel in Iraq.

But the number will reduce now that the 40-member Australian Army Training Team has finished training Iraqi soldiers.

Australia's Embassy in Baghdad will be moved into the highly fortified "green zone", the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said yesterday.

The planned move follows a bomb blast near the embassy which killed seven people.

No Australians were killed or injured in the blast.

- AAP

Herald Feature: Iraq