Four journalists covering clashes between opposition fighters and the government forces in eastern Libya for The New York Times were reported missing, Wednesday. According to the paper, the journalists — photographers Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario, videographer Stephen Farrell and Pulitzer Prize-winning Beirut bureau chief Anthony Shadid — were last in contact with their editors on the morning of March 15, as rebels fled from the town of Ajdabiya, where they were stationed.

Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, says that there have been 40 incidents of journalists being detained in Libya and a total of 400 documented reports in the Middle East since the uprisings in Tunisia began.