ROME MARCH FOR MISSING ITALIAN, FRENCH REPORTERS

Tens of thousands of demonstrators are set to march in Rome on Saturday in a protest organised by the communist daily Il Manifesto to call for the release of its journalist Giuliana Sgrena, held hostage in Iraq since February 4.

Marchers will also press for the release of a French reporter Florence Aubenas, a 43-year-old senior correspondent for the left-leaning newspaper Liberation. She and her Iraqi translator Hussein Hanun al-Saadi have not been seen or heard from since they left her Baghdad hotel on January 5.

Aside from the fact that marching in the streets of democratic Italy will do nothing to hasten the hostages' release by stateless terrorists, it's nice to see that the Italians have remembered Mdm. Aubenas.

Having earlier worked itself up into an overwrought state over the kidnapped Messrs. Chesnot et Malbrunot, this go-round the French public has let Mdm. Aubenas slip into the back pages as the government goes about doing whatever it is this government does to secure the purloined persons of its citizens. The government gave warning that there was only so much magic to its Iraq policy. The French and Jack's government made their big emotional investments in Messrs. Chesnot et Malbrunot and now, well, everyone is spent.

One kidnap episode was enough.

What little news there is is delivered with pro forma optimism and quietly received with a settled bitterness.

France has received information that has sparked hope that a reporter and her interpreter who disappeared in Iraq more than a month ago will eventually be found, Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said Wednesday.

"We've had indications that have given us hope that they will one day come back. That's all I can say," Barnier told France Inter radio.

But Liberation's founding director Serge July was less optimistic, saying that the government had no proof the pair was still alive.

UPDATE 02.20.05: Our resident gadfly, M. Zoomerx, informs us that, if not the whole of France as he implies, at least Mdm. Aubenas' employer, Libération, makes the effort to remind all of her plight. Pave joins all people of goodwill in wishing Mdm. Aubenas and M. al-Saadi safely and quickly restored to their families.

it's nice to see that the Italians have remembered Mdm. Aubenas.

Indeed, and believe it or not Damian, we also do the same.

Our resident gadfly, M. Zoomerx, informs us that, if not the whole of France as he implies, at least Mdm. Aubenas' employer, Libération, makes the effort to remind all of her plight.

I'm not implying anything. Incidentally, you very cleverly imply that this gesture from "Italians" has not been reciprocited by France. If you had bothered reading the entire link (and French news), you would aknowledge that the Italian reporter's plight has not been ignored outside of Libération.

Cheap shots are one thing, deliberate misinformation is another although PAVE makes a brilliant job at morphing both.

M. Zmx,

Who knew you to be such a sensitive plant.

Please explain how you infer anything from our post about France's attitude one way or the other toward Signora Sgrena. We're keen to hear your deconstructed reading.

As to my inference, you say "we also do the same". Yet I did not read about any big French street march. Not for Mdm. Aubenas. Not for Signora Sgrena. All the more unusual as street marches are something of a French pastime. So it is not an unreasonable conclusion that you do not do the same also.

Were we wrong, well, M. Zmx, unlike you, we are human and err. Deliberate misinformation would not be an error but a deceit. Seeing as how the UPDATE was to make sure your information wasn't overlooked in the thread, we find it hard to see how this would be a deceit. Nor do we see how we have mischaracterized the information. We make only one claim about the information: Mdm. Aubenas' employer, Libération, makes the effort to remind all of her plight. Exactly what is your complaint with this simple statement?

The next time you feel compelled to be hysterical, try taking three deep breaths and then think through your post.

DGB