March 2016 Death Toll
SNHR issued its parodic report regarding the violations against media activists by all conflict parties in Syria out of its interest of the prominent role of the media activist in the popular movement and armed struggle
The report stated that the media’s situation is deteriorating in Syria amid the absence of care and attention of a number of international media organizations regarding the Syrian crisis and the sharply decrease of media coverage in the last year compared to previous years.
The report noted that different Syrian governorates, especially regions under the control of armed opposition, witnessed a significant decline in the shelling and killing percentages since the cessation of hostilities agreement. because the regions that are under the government control or Kurdish Self-Management Forces are not subjected to government shelling which is considered responsible for killing more than 60% of the victims in addition to destroying houses and displacing its residents.
The report depicted that the Syrian regime continued to breach the ceasefire, as it is one of the most affected parties regarding this agreement and unpublicized violations have been continuous like extrajudicial killing and torturing detainees. And the crimes, that couldn’t be noticed by American and Russian mediator are continued too.
According to the report’s methodology the citizen journalist is anyone who plays an important role in covering and publishing news even if he is not impartial as opposed to what a journalist should be. When a citizen journalist carries a weapon and gets involved directly in armed clashes, he is no longer a citizen journalist unless he completely retires from military action.
The report was based mainly on SNHR’s archives and investigations in addition to the testimonies of victims’ families and relatives, information that collected from local activists, and the verifying of received pictures and videos.
The report pointed out that the statistics and facts are the bare minimum of the violations and crimes that happened in light of the security and logistic difficulties and challenges.
The report presented the statistic of the violations against the media activists in March 2016.
The report recorded the killing of 2 media activists including a women by the hand of government forces, while the armed opposition groups killed one media activist.
According to the report there were 8 arrest and abduction cases 6 cases amongst which were released. Thus Al Nusra front arrested 4 media activists and released them later. Kurdish self-management arrested one media activist and released him later. The armed opposition groups arrested one media activist. Two abduction cases recorded by unidentified groups including one release case.
It also recorded that two media activists were injured at the hand of Kurdish self-management and one was killed by unidentified groups.
The report recorded one beating case against one media activists by an armed opposition groups.
SNHR affirmed the importance of protecting mass media in Syria, and assured the importance of respecting the freedom of working in media.
The report demanded condemnation of the violation against media activists, protection the media work, and holding the perpetrators in accountable. It also asked the International community, characterized by the Security Council to hold liability for not protecting journalists and media activists in Syria