Jodi Bieber made her appeal in Amsterdam when accepting her World Press Photo of the Year 2010 title. At the end of her acceptance speech, Bieber gave a short, yet emotional, address to raise the issue of her fellow countryman.

"Anton Hammerl is a South African photographer," she said. "He's married, he has two children - he just had a little baby. He has been missing in Libya for 35 days, and I'm pleading with my family, which in the international community, [to act for his release]."

Hammerl is a South African photojournalist living and working in the UK. As reported by BJP in April, Hammerl was detained by Muammar Gaddafi's forces in Libya alongside Spanish photographer Manuel Varela de Seijas Brabo and two US journalists, on 05 April. The New Yorker also reported in mid-April that Gaddafi's regime acknowledged having detained the journalists, and promised that they would be freed in due course. This has yet to happen.

Anton Hammerl's friends have started a Facebook page to help spread news about Hammerl's detainment.