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Mellissa Veronica Fung is a Canadians journalist with CBC News, appearing regularly as a field correspondent on .
In her time as a national correspondent she has covered numerous topics on both Canadian and world affairs, including the Robert Pickton trial, the 2003 SARS outbreak in Canada, the trial of Mike Danton, the 2007 Saskatchewan provincial election, 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and uncovering Canada's international sales of toxic asbestos. In 2007 and 2008 she was sent on assignment to Afghanistan to cover the Canadian military presence there.
On October 12, while en route to a refugee camp near Kabul, she was kidnapped by armed men. Fung alerted her employer using her mobile phone and stated that the kidnappers were not Taliban but "bandits". Her translator and driver—two Afghan brothers named Shokoor Feroz and Qaem Feroz—were beaten and left behind by the kidnappers. Before her captors abandoned her for the last week, she was blindfolded and chained to the inside of a tiny, dark cave. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman in the eastern part of the county, told The Canadian Press that another Islamist group called Hizb-e-Islami was responsible for the abduction. They were later implicated by Afghan authorities in the kidnapping and detained, though CBC publisher John D. Cruickshank expressed confidence in them and stated that they were worried about their conditions in prison.
The kidnapping occurred two days before the 2008 Canadian federal election, and CBC requested a Media blackout while negotiations were conducted with the kidnappers, out of concern that widespread media coverage would complicate matters. Though the incident was covered in Afghan press, the blackout was honoured by all Canadian media and Fung's kidnapping remained generally unknown within Canada.
Fung was finally released on November 8, 2008, after weeks of negotiations. A spokesman for the governor of Wardak Province indicated that local tribal elders and provincial council members negotiated Fung's release and that no ransom was paid. However, it was later revealed that Afghan intelligence determined the identity of the kidnapper, abducted his family, then demanded Fung be released in a prisoner exchange.
On November 12, 2008, she was interviewed about her kidnapping by CBC Radio's Anna Maria Tremonti, in Dubai. The interview later earned Tremonti and Fung a gold medal at the 2009 New York Festivals Radio Programming and Promotion Awards.
Fung wrote the book Under an Afghan Sky about her experiences. During an interview with a columnist from The Globe and Mail, she said "I thought it might be cathartic...But it wasn’t." On May 5, 2011, Fung was interviewed by CBC radio and CBC TV to talk about her experience and her book.
In 2021 Fung released the documentary film Captive, which linked her abduction experience to those of three women who had been abducted by Boko Haram.Leah McLaren, "‘I had to find them’: kidnapped filmmaker Mellissa Fung on her mission to find the Boko Haram girls". The Guardian, May 23, 2021. The film received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022.Brent Furdyk,
Fung was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2024. She currently lives in London, England
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> "2022 Canadian Screen Award Nominees Announced, ‘Sort Of’ & ‘Scarborough’ Lead The Pack". ET Canada, February 15, 2022.
See also
Categories: 1970s Births, 2010s Missing Person Cases, Canadian Journalists Of Chinese Descent, Canadian People Taken Hostage, Canadian Television Reporters And Correspondents, Canadian War Correspondents, Canadian Women Television Journalists, Columbia University Graduate School Of Journalism Alumni, Foreign Hostages In Afghanistan, Formerly Missing Canadian People, Hong Kong Emigrants To Canada, Living People, Missing Person Cases In Afghanistan, Naturalized Citizens Of Canada, Journalists From Vancouver, University Of British Columbia Alumni, Canadian Documentary Film Directors, Canadian Women Film Directors, Asian-canadian Filmmakers, Canadian Women Documentary Filmmakers, Officers Of The Order Of Canada, Journalists From London, Canadian Expatriates In England, Year Of Birth Missing
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