Syria: IFJ calls on all parties to protect journalists

In an address broadcast on Syrian public television, leaders of HTS announced the fall of Assad and the release of all prisoners.

According to information from affiliates in Syria, many journalists and media workers are still at their place of work in Damascus.

Since the start of the HTS offensive at the end of November, the IFJ has deplored the death of a journalist, photographer Anas Alkharboutli, who was killed on 4 December in an air strike near the town of Hama in west-central Syria while covering the HTS offensive. The photographer worked for the German news agency, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA).

The IFJ, a global organisation of media workers, urges all parties involved in the conflict in Syria, in particular HTS, to abide by international humanitarian norms and principles, and specifically its provisions to protect journalists and treat media workers and facilities as civilians (and hence illegitimate targets), and to conduct military operations with due diligence.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said, ‘The political situation in Syria is very confused at the moment, and very often in such situations journalists are a vulnerable category because their job is to investigate and report’.

‘Around the world, the IFJ defends pluralism, freedom of information, and the safety of media workers. It therefore calls on all parties to this conflict to ensure that everyone’s right to free speech and the exercise of freedom of expression are protected.’