A freelance Canadian journalist who was kidnapped with an Australian and a Somali colleague has not been harmed by her captors, says an organization that defends media freedom.

The Paris office of Reporters Without Borders has been able to obtain details about the condition of Amanda Lindhout from the National Union of Somali Journalists, said Dennis Trudeau, spokesman for Reporters Without Borders in Montreal.

"What we have been able to glean is that the journalists - the Canadian, the Australian and the Somali - are unharmed, they have their clothes, they're getting food regularly and they may even have access to satellite TV," Trudeau told The Canadian Press late Tuesday.

The group is believed to be in an area about 80 kilometres outside of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital.

"I can't say more than that. You can understand that the group may be afraid of a possible armed mission to rescue the journalists."

Lindhout, a freelance television and print reporter from Sylvan Lake, Alta., is usually based in Baghdad. She had previously reported from Afghanistan, Iraq and other parts of Africa. She also wrote a weekly column for the Red Deer Advocate from Iraq and Africa.

A friend has described her as courageous and said she had been detained by warriors in Iraq while working for a television station and had been robbed at gunpoint in Africa.

Lindhout, who is working for French TV station France 24, arrived in Somalia on Aug. 20.

Lindhout, Australian Nigel Brennan, and Somali reporter Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, who served as their photographer and translator, were grabbed on Saturday. Workers at their hotel raised the alarm when they noticed the journalists had not returned from their outing.

Journalists and humanitarian workers are frequently abducted for ransom in Somalia, one of the world's poorest and most violence-torn countries.

Saturday's reported abduction came during a period of especially heavy fighting in Somalia, including the capture of Kismayo, Somali's third-largest city, by Islamic insurgents.

Trudeau said no ransom demand has been made yet.

"But the way things have gone in Somalia, from what we know and from what we've seen in the past, that's not necessarily a bad thing, that there's been no demand yet.

"In the case of some Italian aid workers kidnapped a while ago in Somalia, it took seven to 10 days before any contact was made. So you see we're still early on."

Trudeau said the kidnappers may be from the Air clan, a dissident part of one of the Somali clans.

"Somalia is a dangerous place. There are a lot of various factions and many of them have guns. It's a confusing place."

Trudeau said before the group was kidnapped, they had left Mogadishu to visit a refugee camp about 20 or 30 kilometres away. They were waylaid on their way back by a number of armed men.

Two bodyguards who were accompanying the group were not taken but Trudeau said he had no idea if they were somehow involved in the kidnapping.

Trudeau acknowledged the kidnapping could be about money, given the case of the Italian aid workers. He said it is his understanding that when negotiations eventually started in that case, there was a demand for funds and a ransom was paid.

"We are led to believe that it is not necessarily an Islamist organization," he said. "So chances are that, we hope that we'll see that there may be some kind of negotiations and demands for ransom rather than some kind of other outcome."