Reuters chief editor 'salutes' teenager killed in Syria

Freelancer Molhem Barakat, pictured, died on 20 December while covering a battle over a hospital between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s commercial hub, Aleppo. He was 18, and his elder brother Mustafa, a fighter in a local rebel brigade, was killed in the same incident.

Reuters said he had provided it with photographs since last May and was paid on a per-picture basis. It provided him with camera equipment, a ballistic helmet and body armour. It said he was not on assignment for Reuters.

A statement by editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said: “We are deeply saddened by the death of Molhem Barakat, a Syrian freelancer who provided photos to us from the Syrian war zone. The Syria story is one of the most important in the world and one of the most dangerous to report. As a global news agency, we believe it is our responsibility to tell this story as fully and fairly as possible – and to do so with intense focus on safety for staff members and freelancers alike. I salute Molhem and all the brave journalists world-wide who take enormous risks to get the news to the public, and I know our entire staff will continue to work tirelessly to minimize those risks as much as we can.”

Reuters spokeswoman Barb Burg told The Baron the organisation was continuing to look into the circumstances surrounding Barakat’s death.

“We have been cautious about discussing details out of concern for the safety of other journalists in Syria,” she said. “But we can confirm the following facts: Molhem was 18 years old, having been born on March 8, 1995. He began providing pictures to Reuters on May 2013, and we paid him on a per-picture basis. Reuters provided Molhem with camera equipment, a ballistic helmet, and body armor.”

Reports at the time of his death said he was 17.

US magazine Foreign Policy said Barakat took the sort of risks that would horrify most veteran journalists. One video posted on YouTube shows him trying to aid a stricken rebel fighter as other fighters warn of a nearby tank. “He ducks behind a piece of debris for cover as the tank fires, and the picture is lost in the reverberations from the explosion. This, clearly, was no ordinary childhood.”

It said Barakat’s death had raised a furor among war correspondents, “who have criticized Reuters for not doing enough to protect the young Syrians whom it relies on for coverage of the war zone. Barakat’s extreme youth was only one aspect of the ethical dilemma: Journalists have raised questions about his lack of protective gear, his political affiliation with a rebel brigade, and whether Reuters violated its own safety guidelines by putting him in harm’s way.”

Foreign Policy said Reuters’ argument that commenting on Barakat could endanger other journalists doesn't ring true to some correspondents – including a former editor with Reuters.

“When I saw that statement, it was just a lie,” said Andrew MacGregor Marshall, who served as Baghdad bureau chief and Middle East editor before resigning amid controversy after Reuters refused to publish a story he wrote on the Thai monarchy.

“Speaking as a professional combat journalist, there is no reason why they can’t comment on this issue for the safety of their journalists,” Marshall told Foreign Policy.

The magazine said Marshall rewrote Reuters’ safety guidelines for operating in war zones in 2008 after two Reuters employees were killed in Iraq by a US Army Apache helicopter team that mistook them for part of a militia. The revised guidelines  prohibit staff or freelance employees from accompanying armed people “without the explicit authorisation of your bureau chief or regional managing editor” and advises reporters to “[n]ever cross the line, or give the appearance of crossing the line, between the role of journalist as impartial observer and that of participant in a conflict.”

Foreign Policy said Reuters has not commented on whether its editorial staff granted Barakat explicit approval for his daily trips with rebel forces. Barakat, however, was quite clear that he did not see his role as an “impartial observer” – he considered becoming a fighter at one point.

It said the tenuousness of Barakat’s employment status goes to the financial dilemma of any major news outlet covering a conflict like the Syrian war: “The level of violence means that often it’s only locals who can regularly gain access to the front lines, but the news organizations cannot possibly afford to bring all these people on as full-time staff members – a step that would bring with it pensions and long-term commitments that would make them hard to let go when the story died down.” ■