Parents of U.S. hostage Austin Tice mount campaign to win his release

JUDY WOODRUFF:

We return to the situation in Syria.

Since the start of the civil war, a number of Americans have been captured by militant groups.

Tonight, we look at one American journalist who has been missing for two-and-a-half years, and his family's efforts to find him.

This shaky video released weeks after Austin Tice disappeared remains the only sign of him to date. Tice had been working as a freelance journalist, covering fighting on the outskirts of Damascus. That was in August of 2012.

Now his parents, Marc and Debra Tice, have mounted a public campaign for more help in winning his release.

MARC TICE, Father of missing journalist: Our number one focus is to bring our son Austin home safely.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

The Tices were in Washington this week, pressing their case, even as Islamic State militants announced they'd burned a captive Jordanian pilot alive. They had already beheaded two Japanese hostages, as well as American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and three aid workers, American Peter Kassig and David Haines and Alan Henning of Britain.

Then, today, the claim that another American aid worker, Kayla Mueller, died in an airstrike. Tice's parents say they don't believe the Islamic State is holding their son, but they complain U.S. officials haven't told them much, one way or the other.

DEBRA TICE, Mother of missing journalist: There is no agency, no person solely committed to the singular objective of the safe return of a hostage. That has to change.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

At a forum at the Newseum, Debra Tice, along with James Foley's mother, Diane, listened as Assistant Secretary of State Douglas Frantz acknowledged the problem.

DOUGLAS FRANTZ, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs: We need to do more. We need to be better. I would have preferred to have Mrs. Foley and Mrs. Tice sitting right here saying not that news organizations had done everything they could for them, but that the U.S. government had done everything it could for them.