Friday, April 1, 2011

Reuters correspondent and photographer "missing" in Syria

Reuters reported on Wednesday that two more of its employees have gone "missing" in Syria:
Diplomatic sources said on Wednesday that correspondent Suleiman al-Khalidi, a Jordanian national based in Amman, had been detained by the Syrian authorities in Damascus on Tuesday.
Photographer Khaled al-Hariri, a Syrian based in Damascus, has not been in contact with colleagues since Monday.
A Syrian official said authorities were working to establish what had happened to the two men[...]
Their disappearance follows the detention in Syria of two Reuters television journalists, producer Ayat Basma and cameraman Ezzat Baltaji. They were held incommunicado for two days before being released by Syrian authorities on Monday. 
Both Lebanese, they were expelled to Lebanon. They had been working in Syria since the previous week. 
Reuters correspondent Khaled Yacoub Oweis, a Jordanian who had been based in Damascus, was expelled from Syria on Friday for what a Syrian Information Ministry official described as his "unprofessional and false" coverage of events.
This follows attacks on Reuters offices in Gaza by Hamas in late March when journalists were beaten and threatened

Journalists reporting on unrest in the Arab world have also been intimidated, arrested and/or deported by authorities in Jordan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.

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