Posts Tagged ‘Syria’
February 22nd, 2012
Marie Colvin, veteran war reporter for the Sunday Times,
was killed this morning with French photojournalist Remi Ochlik when a shell hit a makeshift media centre in the besieged Syrian city of Homs. Two other journalists are reportedly wounded, named as British freelance photographer Paul Conroy, who was working with Colvin, and Edith Bouvier of French newspaper Le Figaro. Citizen journalist Rami al-Sayed, who streamed live video footage from Homs, was also
killed this week in the shelling of the Baba Amr district of the city.
February 20th, 2012
Blogger and free speech activist
Razan Ghazzawi was
released on Saturday along with her female colleagues, after being arrested and detained
last Thursday following a raid on the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression in Damascus. Ghazzawi’s sister tweeted that Razan had returned home but was not allowed to leave the country. Razan’s male colleagues remain detained.
February 16th, 2012
Activists in Syria have
reported that the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression in Damascus was raided today. Between 12 and 14 people were arrested, with blogger
Razan Ghazzawi said to be among them. Ghazzawi was arrested in December last year while travelling to a press freedom conference in Jordan, but was released 15 days later after a robust online
campaign.
February 16th, 2012
The
Syrian government has ordered text messages containing politically sensitive words
to be blocked. Sources familiar with the country’s filtering system say that Irish technology is being used to prevent the delivery of text messages including words such as “ revolution” or “demonstration”. The country’s largest mobile phone company Syriatel Mobile Telecom SA have allegedly used blocking equipment from Cellusys Ltd, a privately-held company based in Dublin. Since public unrest in Syria erupted last year, text messages have been a crucial tool for protesters.
February 13th, 2012
Syrian journalist Mazhar Tayyara was
killed by government forces’ fire in the city of Homs, a centre of the Syrian resistance against President Bashar al-Assad, on 4 February. Tayyara, a stringer for Agence France-Presse and other international news organisations, was reporting from the Homs neighbourhood of Al-Khaldiyeh when government forces shelled the area. The journalist sustained multiple severe injuries and died in hospital within hours.
January 11th, 2012
A journalist from France 2 TV was reportedly
killed and another wounded today in an attack in the Syrian city of Homs. The rocket-propelled grenade blast killed journalist
Gilles Jacquier during a pro-government rally, which also resulted in the
deaths of eight civilians according to a state-owned television station. The attack came on the same day that a member of the Arab League group sent to monitor the country’s peace plan
resigned, claiming the mission was a “farce”. According to the UN, 400 people have been
killed in Syria since the humanitarian mission began in late December.
January 4th, 2012
A
Syrian journalist with gunshot wounds in the head
died on 2 January after three days in a Damascus hospital. Shukri Ahmed Ratib Abu Burghul was reportedly shot in the face deliberately on 30 December after hosting his weekly programme on Radio Damascus. Burghul was also deputy director of the censorship department of Al-Thawra, a state-owned newspaper.
December 19th, 2011
Detained
Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi was
released on bail yesterday. Razan was arrested at the at the Syrian border with Jordan on December 5, and was released by authorities after spending 15 days in prison. The blogger’s sister, Nadine, tweeted the details of her freedom: “It’s raining Razans… hallelujah :)))))))) <3 It’s official, sis is out! hopefully the same goes to all arrested sisters and brothers.”
Ghazzawi
was charged with “establishing an organisation that aims to change the social and economical entity of the state” and “weakening the national sentiment, and trying to ignite sectarian strife.”
