(CNN) -- Two journalists kidnapped earlier this week by armed gunmen in Gomez Palacio, Mexico, were freed by their captors unharmed Saturday, according to the state-run news agency Notimex.
Mulitmedios cameraman Javier Canales and Televisa Laguna photo journalist Alejandro Hernandez were released two days after the release of another hostage, Hector Gordo, a journalist on the program Punto de Partida.
The whereabouts of a fourth hostage, Oscar Solis, a local newspaper reporter, are still unknown.
The journalists were kidnapped Monday while covering a protest by inmates and relatives at a local prison. The prison made news after Mexico's attorney general's office revealed some of its guards let a squad of imprisoned hit men free to carry out a massacre of 17 people in the nearby town of Torreon.
This week, local residents along with Mexican and foreign journalists started a petition on the social media sites Facebook and Twitter to demand the journalists' release.
On Friday, the signal of one of Mexico's largest television networks faded to black for almost an hour as a symbolic protest of violence against journalists.
CNN
