Calls for 'independent investigation' into murders of 2 journalists in Syria

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for an independent investigation into the murders of two journalists in Syria.

Award-winning Syrian journalist Anas Alkharboutli was killed in an air strike by the Bashar Al-Assad regime in western Syria on Wednesday, and Mustafa Al-Kurdi, a correspondent for the news website Focus Aleppo, was shot by regime soldiers last week in Aleppo.

“Targeting media workers is a war crime,” the RSF and the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) said in a joint statement yesterday.

“RSF and SCM are calling for independent investigations to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators of these two murders,” it added.

Jonathan Dagher, head of RSF’s Middle East Desk, expressed fear that “this conflict will cause more violence against journalists as it looks set to last.”

“Independent investigations must be launched immediately to determine who is responsible for these crimes and bring them to justice. If these two reporters were identified and targeted as journalists, their murders will constitute war crimes,” Dagher further said and recalled that 194 journalists were killed on duty since 2011, the start of the conflict in Syria.

SCM’s Programs Manager Yara Bader said: “No party to any conflict, regardless of its objectives, can use hostilities as a shield to evade responsibility for targeting journalists, neglecting their protection, or showing leniency toward perpetrators.”

She criticised the “international community’s persistent failure to hold those accountable for targeting journalists in Syria,” which “has set a dangerous precedent, emboldening others to follow suit—from Ukraine to Palestine.”

Clashes between Syrian regime forces and anti-regime groups first erupted on 27 November in the western countryside of Aleppo.

By 30 November, the opposition forces had taken control of most of Aleppo’s city centre and established dominance across Idlib province.

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