A short film by the Syrian activist Bassel Shahade. He was killed two nights ago by Assad’s forces along with two other prominent citizen journalists for the Sham News Network. His funeral at the local Um Al Zinnar church could not be carried out with the dignity he deserved since Assad’s forces made a point to shell the neighborhood and church during the services.
Here is a video a few hours after Bassel and his colleagues were killed. Their bodies wrapped in white sheets as mourners carry them through the streets of Homs.
Bassel was a Fulbright Scholar at Syracuse University in New York pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Film degree in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. He left the university early in order to go to Homs and help show the world what Assad was doing to the city and the country. Here is a dedication to Bassel from the University’s Chancellor.
Reporters Without Borders is shocked to learn of the death sentence passed today on the citizen journalist Mohammed Abdelmawla al-Hariri for “high treason and contacts with foreign parties”. He was arrested on 16 April just after giving an interview to the television station Al-Jazeera about the situation in his hometown of Deraa.
“Such a verdict is unacceptable and out of all proportion to Mohamed al-Hariri’s so-called crime of giving an interview to Al-Jazeera,” the press freedom organization said.
“The government of Bashar al-Assad has thus shown the extent of its brutality and cruelty. Reporters Without Borders calls for this contemptible verdict to be overturned and for this citizen journalist to be released immediately.”
According to the SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom, Hariri was subjected to horrific torture after his arrest, to the point of being partially paralysed. After the verdict was pronounced, he was transferred to Saidnaya military prison north of Damascus.
Hariri gave regular interviews to Al-Jazeera about the situation on the ground in Deraa in southern Syria, such as this one on 15 April. The Syrian government has accused the Qatari-based station and other foreign media outlets of being part of a global plot to cause chaos in Syria.
Reporters Without Borders lists Assad among 41 predators of freedom of information. Several media workers, citizen journalists and cyber-activists have been killed by the government since the start of the year and dozens more are currently languishing in Syria’s prisons.
A prominent journalist has told Amnesty International how Syrian government forces tortured and detained him in deplorable conditions before deporting him to Jordan on Monday.
Salameh Kaileh, a 57-year-old Jordanian national of Palestinian descent, has lived and worked in the Syrian capital Damascus since 1981.
On 24 April, plain clothes officials from Syria’s Air Force Intelligence arrested him during a raid on his flat in Barzah, a Damascus suburb. Amnesty International considered him to be a prisoner of conscience, held solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression.
“The main reason for my arrest, from what I understood, is a conversation I had on Facebook with a friend outside Syria about my position on the revolution and my opinion about the Muslim Brotherhood and so on,” Kaileh told Amnesty International.
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‘FREEDOM’S EYE’S’ (عيون الحرية) - Incredible compilation of video’s shot by the brave citizen journalists of Syria. Many have died and many more have been injured trying to show the world the horrific crimes that Assad’s forces have and are committing.
Thanks @Homsae
WATCH AS THE CAMERAMAN RUNS FOR COVER AS ASSAD’S FORCES CONTINUE THEIR BOMBARDMENT. Homs (Beyadah):Apr 16, 2012 - A close call. Nothing else to add.
The UN observers should watch this. They will face the same.
Thanks @ahmed
***HEARTBREAKING*** THE FAMILY OF HOMSI CITIZEN-JOURNLAIST SAMEER SHALAB AL SHAAM (ABU-LAILA) SAY FARWELL. HE IS BURED WITH HIS CAMERA. Homs (Bab Sibaa): Apr 15, 2012 - Incredibly sad. It seems like in the past month Syria has lost more citizen journalists that at any other point during the 13 month long revolution. He is married with 2 children.
People such as Abu Laila lay their lives on the line, and pay the ultimate price to show the world what Assad is doing to the men, women and children of Syria. Without people like him, the revolution would have been ‘Dead on Arrival’ that fateful day in Daraa when the first martyrs fell more than a year ago …
Thanks @Mou2amara
AS THEY FILM THE SHELLING OF HOMS - THE MEDIA CENTER COMES UNDER ATTACK WHILE FILMING. Homs (Beyadah): Apr 15, 2012 - A shell from a Russian made and supplied T-72 tank hits their location as they film from the de-facto media center in the neighborhood of Beyadah, Homs. The citizen-journalist filming is in shock as he realizes how close they came when he films the hole int he wall where the shell landed.
He shouts out a coming phrase said across Syria now “God Will Suffice Me!” … because the world has turned their back on the people of Syria.
Thanks @Mou2amara
A BRAVE CITIZEN JOURNALIST CONTINUES TO REPORT DESPITE ROCKETS LITERALLY FALLING ALL AROUND HIM. Homs: Apr 3, 2012 - I don’t know his name yet and he’s been featured in a number of similar videos before. Watch as the rockets hit nearby buildings as he reports with his cameraman. They risk everything in order to show the world the miserable hell they live in.
You can help, please donate to one of the following:
Avaaz.org - Int’l organization smuggling medical aid into Syria
Syrian Orphans - A collection of Non-Profit Org’s supporting orphans in Syria
ANOTHER CAMERAMAN HAS A CLOSE CALL WITH A ROCKET - Homs (Khalidiyeh): Mar 21, 2012 - The film speaks for itself. This is what the people of Homs are enduring with day after day after day …
Thanks @ArabSpringFF
CHANNEL 4 NEWS - PAUL CONROY DISCUSSES THE CAPTURE OF LEADING HOMSI ACTIVIST AND JOURNALIST ALI OTHMAN.
There are fears the journalist, who ran the Homs media centre and helped photographer Paul Conroy escape the city, has been subject to torture and mistreatment after being seized by the authorities.
Ali Othman rose to prominence when he highlighted the shelling of Homs by the Syrian authorities, and was in the Baba Amr media office when Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik were killed.
Ali saved the lives of many journalists including Colvin’s photographer, Paul Conroy.
GUNS VS. CAMERA’S. HE MIGHT AS WELL HAVE BEEN CARRYING A GUN. A CAMERAMAN IS FIRED UPON BY ASSAD’S FORCES. Damascus Suburbs (Madaya): mar 27, 2012 - The first Assadist patrol passes, then one a second group passes a mercenary opens fire on the cameraman, knowing full well he holds nothing else other than a camera.
In Syria, holding a camera is more dangerous than holding a gun. At least with a gun you can fire back.
I joined a motley procession of injured fighters and journalists fleeing the city – on the day 64 people died trying the same thing
The motley procession seemed like something out of the 17th-century Spain described by the writer Francisco de Quevedo. One injured man was in his underwear, with his legs, head and arms bandaged up, using his working hand to grasp his drip. He could barely walk. Then came a limping man, wounded in his foot, who hopped or was carried on a friend’s back. Another young man, his leg shattered by shrapnel, was transported on a blanket held by others.
Ahmed, his arm and leg lacerated by shrapnel from a rocket, leaned on Mohamed, who struggled onwards with a sniper’s bullet in his back. Journalists Paul Conroy and Edith Bouvier, both wounded, were part of the same strange troop, along with two other correspondents, including me.
Even the vehicles we travelled in seemed more ready for the scrapyard than this insane venture. The lorries were peppered with bullet holes and shrapnel. One jolted along on a flat tyre.
CNN - ANDERSON COOPER AC360: Journalist Javier Espinosa survived the shelling that killed Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik in Baba Amr, Homs. He describes the attacks he experienced before his escape.
JOURNALISTS MARIE COLVIN AND REMI OCHLIK ARE BURIED IN BABA AMR, HOMS. Feb 27, 2012 - Their bodies were not allowed out of Baba Amr. Assad’s forces murdered these two journalists, then refused to let their families claim the bodies back. So they were buried in city were they were killed. In the video Dr. Mohammed explains why they needed to bury them (english subs)
***GRAPHIC*** THE BODIES OF AMERICAN JOURNALIST MARIE COLVIN & FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHER REMI OCHLIEK ARE STILL IN BABA AMR IN A VEGETABLE FREEZER. Homs (Baba Amr): Feb 28, 21012 - They have no place else to store their bodies. Both were killed last week when Assad’s forces targeted their make-shift media center with no less than 11 rockets.
Marie and Remi’s colleague Paul Conroy was smuggled out of Homs into Lebanon, however in the process, 13 Syrians (out of 40) who took it upon themselves to smuggle him out of Baba Amr died when they were ambushed by Assad’s forces and murdered.
Revolting: present participle of re·volt (Verb): To rise in rebellion.
The Revolting Syrian aims to provide the world with daily updates on the brutal and shocking response Bashar Al Assad and his forces are using against the peaceful and freedom loving people in Syria as they fight for their freedom and dignity.
