After nearly a year of agony, the family of Australian Nigel Brennan have appealed to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to go public with their loved one's hostage ordeal in Somalia.
The photographer from Queensland and freelance Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout were abducted in August on the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu.
The government has asked the media to be cautious in its reporting of Mr Brennan's situation, worried that it might harm his chances of release, or jeopardise his life.
But supporters are increasingly concerned about Mr Brennan's health and the matter's limited public profile.
Family friend Rebecca Hutchins urged the media to give attention to the case.
"He is really very, very unwell," Ms Hutchins said.
"I think mentally he would be in a very dark place and emotionally.
"Physically that is where the problem is at the moment. He is not well."
The family spoke to Mr Brennan as recently as Wednesday.
Mr Brennan's mother, Heather, approached Mr Rudd while he was touring the Queensland sugar town of Bundaberg on Thursday.
The prime minister spent 20 minutes with Mrs Brennan and assured her the case was a concern to him.
This was his first meeting with her since the hostage ordeal began.
"If I was to look at the consular cases upon which I have spent the most time since I've been prime minister, it is this one," Mr Rudd told reporters after their meeting.
"It is one which the government takes seriously, but I do not underestimate the degree of difficulty involved in this. It is very hard."
Mr Rudd said the government was doing all it could to help Mr Brennan.
"There is active and continuing contact between families and the Australian government through (foreign affairs)," he told reporters.
"These are difficult, sensitive and complex negotiations.
"This is difficult, and an ugly part of the world, but the government is actively engaged in the support of this person. It will be, still, a very difficult process which lies ahead."
After meeting Mr Rudd, Mrs Brennan spoke to Mr Rudd's chief of staff Alister Jordan for nearly an hour.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has appealed to the media to limit its coverage of Mr Brennan's captivity on the grounds it may threaten his life.
"What we've been trying to do, and how we've been trying to do it, they are essentially operational matters and our own view of that is that any discussion of that, firstly, maximises the chances of those efforts not being successful but also, in our view, puts Nigel's life at risk," Mr Smith told reporters on Thursday from Phuket in Thailand.
Mr Smith later told ABC Television he empathised with the Brennan family's wish to publicise his case, but said captors often preyed upon media coverage.
"I'm absolutely not going to be critical of anything they've done or they've said given the pressure they're under," he said.
"They're making judgments and decisions in the pain and the agony of a son or a brother who's been missing, kidnapped for 11 months.
"Our hearts go out to them in what is a terrible and difficult situation."