Five weeks later, a 47-second video titled “Austin Tice Still Alive” was posted on a pro-government web page, in which Mr. Tice is being hustled along a rocky mountainside by what is meant to appear to be a group of Islamist militants. They force Mr. Tice to recite, in clumsy Arabic, a prayer Muslims say before dying, after which, breathless and distraught, he says in English: “Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus.” There were doubts at the time about the authenticity of the video, in part because the captors did not behave as militants usually do.

Without offering any evidence, other pro-regime news sources subsequently posted messages describing Mr. Tice as an Israeli agent or accusing him of killing three Syrian officers. But there has been no contact with his captors.

Mr. Tice’s parents, Marc and Debra Tice, are convinced he is alive and have worked tirelessly for his release, traveling several times to Lebanon, putting pressure on every diplomat and official they can, organizing special events to keep his fate in the public eye. The State Department has said it is operating on the presumption that Mr. Tice is alive, and it has been working through the Czech Embassy in Damascus (the United States Embassy is closed) to press the Syrian government for information. The F.B.I. has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his return, and journalism organizations such as Reporters Without Borders and the National Press Club have joined in campaigning for Mr. Tice’s freedom.

Mr. Tice was not a combatant. He was a journalist who went to Syria to report on the plight of people in a terrible civil war. That he was a freelance contributor makes no difference — his self-assigned mission was the same as that of all journalists who confront the enormous dangers of conflict, hostile governments and rapacious bandits to let the world know what is really happening. According to Reporters Without Borders, 239 journalists and 17 of their assistants are currently known to be imprisoned for their work.