Reuters journalists under attack in Syria, Libya

Citing diplomatic sources, Reuters said correspondent Suleiman al-Khalidi, a 54-year-old Jordanian who has worked for Reuters for more than 20 years in Jordan, Kuwait, Syria and Iraq, had been detained in Damascus on Tuesday. The Jordanian foreign minister said in a Twitter post that he was monitoring the case closely.

He was able to make two brief telephone calls to his wife on Thursday, saying he hoped to return soon.

Reuters also said Damascus-based photographer Khaled al-Hariri, a Syrian who has also worked for Reuters for more than 20 years, has not been heard from since Monday. It said he was last seen at the Damascus bureau on Monday morning.

Both journalists had been covering political unrest in Syria.

“Thomson Reuters is deeply concerned about the whereabouts of our colleagues Khaled al-Hariri and Suleiman al-Khalidi,” editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said. “We call upon the Syrian authorities to help us urgently in ensuring their safe and timely release.”

Syrian authorities have detained several local journalists and press freedom advocates in recent days, although some have since been released. Reuters journalists were among those targeted. On Monday, authorities expelled producer Ayat Basma and cameraman Ezzat Baltaji after holding them incommunicado for two days. On Friday, Syrian authorities revoked the press credentials of another Reuters senior correspondent, Khaled Oweis, for purportedly “false” coverage.

In Libya, authorities on Wednesday expelled Michael Georgy, who had been covering the conflict for several weeks, Reuters said. The Libyan government provided no justification for its action. Georgy, who was among a group of foreign journalists allowed to report from Tripoli under severe government restrictions, arrived in neighbouring Tunisia. He had been detained for several hours earlier this month while trying to reach Misrata, Reuters said.

“We are concerned for the safety of our two missing colleagues and urge Syrian authorities to do everything to ensure their safety,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator. “We are also disappointed to hear that the Libyan government has expelled Reuters’ Michael Georgy, seemly without cause.”

Two Lebanese Reuters television journalists who had been working in Syria since the previous week, producer Ayat Basma and cameraman Ezzat Baltaji, were held incommunicado for two days before being released by Syrian authorities on Monday. They were expelled to Lebanon.

Reuters correspondent Khaled Yacoub Oweis, a Jordanian who had been based in Damascus, was expelled from Syria on Friday for what a Syrian information ministry official described as his “unprofessional and false” coverage of events.

Two weeks ago Saudi Arabia expelled correspondent Ulf Laessing from Riyadh.

Prominent Jordanian journalists and rights activists staged a silent protest on the steps of Jordan’s Journalists Syndicate in Amman on Thursday over Khalidi’s detention. ■