A Syrian rights group accused the government on Tuesday of cracking down on media and endangering the lives of journalists on the ground. The National Organization For Human Rights (NOHRS) in Syria said that at least 9 journalists have been reportedly arrested or missing and scores of virtual activists detained in the ongoing anti-government protests engulfing the country. “The already deteriorating state of journalism in Syria have put it in the lowest ranking in countries that support freedom of journalism,” read the statement NOHRS released on Tuesday. “Yet, Syria is witnessing great escalation of freedoms violations including those committed against journalists and bloggers in the past two weeks,” the statements continued. Syria has witnessed an uprising similar to that of Tunisia and Egypt where thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets in an unfamiliar Syrian scene. The Syrian government has been known to violently crackdown on opposition and Syrian secret police have enjoyed a reputation of horror for decades. The rights group said that among the violations was the detention of journalist Kamal Shikhou for the second time in 9 months after arresting him the first time in late June of last year and was charged with “publishing false news that could weaken the morale of the nation.” His trial was set for early July 2010, but a hunger strike he embarked on forced the authorities to release him. He was rearrested on March 15. Among the detainees is Media Manager for the Damascus Film Festival Zaher Amreen, al-Hayat journalist Amer Matar and Al Mashreq TV corespondent Doha Hassan. The NGO added that five virtual activists who were active on Facebook were detained and the organization could not gather their real names. News agencies also had their share of harassment and arrested, including Reuters cameraman Khaled al-Hariri, who was detained for a full week as well as the head of Reuters' Amman office Suleiman al-Khalidi, who was detained last Tuesday after police arrested Khaled Ya'qob the head of the Reuters office in Damascus and seized his credentials. Khalidi was reportedly released, but the Syrian government continues harassing the Reuters team in the country and arrested Lebanese journalist Ayat Basma and photojournalist Ezzat Baltagi last Saturday and released them on Monday and deported them back to Lebanon. “Thomson Reuters is deeply concerned about the whereabouts of our colleagues Khaled al-Hariri and Suleiman al-Khalidi,” Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler said. “We call upon the Syrian authorities to help us urgently in ensuring their safe and timely release.” The Syrian government cleared the town of Der'a from journalists Friday and asked them not to come back without “special permission.” Foreign journalist were also forbidden from entering Al-Laziqeya town after a wave of protests also hit the town. Since the unrest and protests started sweeping through the the Middle East, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said they have documented more than 300 attacks on journalists covering political unrest across. They said six journalists were killed in the region and dozens more were detained and assaulted. “Detentions, regulations, and intimidation, authorities in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Egypt have emerged as the leading online oppressors in the Middle East and North Africa,” CPJ said on their website. www.cpj.org CPJ found among the 856 journalist killed worldwide for doing their jobs since 1992, 39 percent of them were reporting on politics. Only last week, Sabah al-Bazi, a correspondent for al-Arabiya and contributor to Reuters, CNN, and other news outlets, was killed In Iraq, when gunmen wearing military uniforms seized control of a provincial building in Tikrit, according to CPJ. Al-Bazi was 30. BM
