Syria: Foreign media threatened, journalists missing

Arab and foreign media who are in Syria “illegally” are being threatened by the information ministry. On 9 March, authorities threatened to take measures against Arab and foreign journalists who have entered the country “illegally” and against anyone cooperating with them. The minister accused journalists of fabricating reports, complicity with terrorists and suggested that covering the activities of those terrorists justified their crimes. Two Turkish journalists, Adem Ozkose, Middle East correspondent for Gercek Hayat magazine and columnist for newspaper Milat, and cameraman Hamit Coskun, who crossed into Syria a week ago, have been missing for four days.

Syria: Paul Conroy escape Homs

UPDATE 15:37 28/02/11: France’s President Sarkozy has said that Le Figaro correspondent Edith Bouvier has escaped Homs and is in Lebanon. This has not been fully confirmed.

The Sunday Times has confirmed that British photographer Paul Conroy has escaped from the besieged city of Homs in Syria. Conroy, who was injured in the attack that killed war Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin and French journalist Remi Ochlik was smuggled out of the city by anti-government accidents and is now in Lebanon. There have been reports that several activists were killed by government forces during the escape. Several media workers remain trapped in Homs. The Syrian army’s elite 4th armoured division is reported to have been deployed to Homs, prompting fears of a further escalation of the government assault on the city.

Index calls on Syria to release human rights workers

The undersigned organisations call on the Syrian authorities to immediately release Mazen Darwish, a prominent Syrian human rights defender and Director of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) – as well as seven of his colleagues and a visitor, who were arrested during a raid on their Damascus offices (more…)

Syria: Foreign journalists killed in Homs

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.