Washington D.C. – Reporters Without Borders (USA), Aug. 13, 2025
Despite promises, neither the US nor Syrian governments have been transparent about what they know or what they’re doing to find journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped while reporting near Damascus 13 years ago. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urges both the Trump administration and Syria’s new leaders to share more information on this high-profile case and do everything in their power to bring Tice home.
Austin Tice was taken prisoner in Syria on August 14, 2012 while covering the country’s civil war for several media outlets. He has remained incommunicado since the day he was captured. The government of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad never acknowledged holding Tice, so the regime change in December 2024 brought renewed hope that he could be found and freed.
Former President Joe Biden declared in 2022 that the US government knows “with certainty that [Tice] has been held by the Syrian regime” and called on Damascus to cooperate on efforts to release him. Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned the journalist at an RSF event for World Press Freedom Day 2023.
