A sniper in Syria killed Mohamed Al-Massalma a freelance reporter who worked for media network, Al Jazeera. The killing took place in Deraa a province in southern Syria, the media network based in Qatar reported.
The journalist was Syrian and just 33 years of age and used Mohamed Al-Horani as a pseudonym. He was hit with three gunshots during his coverage of fights that were taking place on the front lines in Busra Al-Harir a town in Deraa’s countryside, Al Jazeera announced during a press release late Friday.
A spokesperson for the Media Network affirmed that targeting its journalists and film crews would not change the method of the network for getting editorial information nor the networks guidelines, since it was established over 16 years ago to deliver the truth.
Al-Horani, prior to joining Al Jazeera, was active in the revolt against Syria President Bashar al-Assad.
He becomes the second reporter that snipers have killed in the last 24 hours in Syria. Yves Debay, a French journalist was killed on Thursday by gunfire in Alleppo a northern city, said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog group. The journalist’s family and friends were sent condolences by Francois Hollande the President of France.
Debay had been covering fights between President al-Assad’s government forces and their supporters and the rebels, when he was shot by a government sniper. Rebels from Syria are reported to have taken the reporters’ body into Turkey, where an official from the foreign ministry said he was pronounced dead early Friday.
Reports say that since the conflict in Syria started over 22 months ago, 20 professional journalists or more have been killed.
