Austin Tice, a Georgetown alum and Marine Corps veteran, disappeared in Syria August 2012 while working as a freelance journalist covering the conflict there for McClatchy, the Washington Post among others.
He has been missing ever since.
Monday, April 18, demonstrators will meet in front of the White House to call on President Obama to find out what happened to Tice and bring him home. Some will first meet at Georgetown University and then march to the White House to meet up with representatives of Reporters Without Borders.
People meeting at the Georgetown Front Gates at 4:45pm to walk down to the White House where they will meet up with a group from Reporter Without Borders at 5:00pm. Georgetown alumni are encouraged to wear their school colors in support of Tice.
Once at the White House, demonstrators will wear blindfolds to symbolize Austin Tice’s plight.
For more information about the demonstration go to the #FreeAustinTice page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1105602032793195/
From the Reporters Without Borders page on the campaign to bring Tice home:
Tice chose to go to Syria as a freelance journalist to report on the conflict there. His work was published by the McClatchy Newspapers, the Washington Post, Associated Press, AFP, as well as CBS, NPR, and BBC. His reporting was awarded the 2012 George Polk Award for War Reporting and the 2012 McClatchy Newspapers President’s Award.
On August 13, 2012, two days after his 31st birthday, Austin disappeared as he was preparing to travel from Daraya, near Damascus, Syria, to Beirut, Lebanon. He is alive and he is not held by ISIS.
In a petition to the White House, the group also notes:
Without journalists, the world wouldn’t know about the Syrian human drama. Without journalists, we are all deprived of information, we are all blindfolded.