Wed, 27/06/2012

Three media professionals were killed by the bombing of government-owned station Al-Ikhbariya. A citizen journalist lost his life near Idlib.

Pro-government channel attacked, 3 die
An attack on a pro-government television channel’s offices near Damascus killed three staff on Wednesday after President Bashar al-Assad said Syria was in a "state of war."

Human rights monitors said that 79 civilians were among at least 129 people killed in violence on Tuesday.

Live footage broadcast by state television showed extensive damage to the studios of the Al-Ikhbariya satellite channel with several small fires still burning in what it described as an unprecedented attack on the pro-government media.

The terrorist groups stormed the offices of Al-Ikhbariya, planted explosives in the studios and blew themselves up along with the equipment," Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi told the television in a live interview.

"They carried out the worst massacre against the media, executing journalists and security staff," Zohbi said.

"This didn’t come out of nowhere," he added, pointing to European Union sanctions imposed on the pro-government media.

An unidentified pro-government television channel was among the organisations hit by the latest round of EU sanctions against the Syrian authorities imposed on Monday.

Washington put the state broadcaster on its sanctions blacklist in March.

Al-Ikhbariya remained on the air despite Wednesday’s assault.

With the uprising now in its 16th month, Assad told his cabinet Tuesday that Syria was in a "real situation of war" and ordered ministers to crush the anti-regime revolt even as fierce fighting broke out near the capital Damascus.

"When one is in a state of war, all our policies and capabilities must be used to secure victory," he said.

Citizen journalist killed near Idlib
Citizen journalist Wael Omar Barad lost his life yesterday in Jarjaraz, a city of the Idlib province, as he was filming a fight between Syria Free Army and the Syrian Armed Forces.

Barad was shot in the heart and died on the spot. 

Head of Al Jazeera Syria, Zaina Al Halabiya, confirmed the news on the channel’s facebook.  "He was just coming from his hometown Taftanaz, where he had burried his brother" she said. He was also killed by the Syrian Armed Forces.

44 journalists have now lost their life in Syria since the beginning of the conflict.