Turkey targets journalists, escalates hatred speech – Press Official

Tal Tamr – North-Press reporter Dilsoz Youssef after being injured in Ras al-Ain

Qamishli – North-Press Agency
Roj Mousa  

Bangin Sido, the co-chair of the Free Media Union in northeastern Syria said that 21 journalists have lost their lives while reporting on the events in northern Syria, 4 of them lost their lives during the last Turkish military invasion in both Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Gre-Spi (Tal Abyad), and 8 others were injured.

In a statement to North-Press, Sido said they documented the number of journalists who lost their lives and were injured during Turkey’s military aggression in northeastern Syria. In addition to documenting the death of 21 journalists, they also documented the injury of dozens of journalists.
 

He explained that most of them lost their lives during reporting the fighting between the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF and the Islamic State (ISIS), and that a number of them lost their lives during the Turkish aggression on the city of Afrin and the Turkish airstrike on Mount Qarachok in Derik countryside, northeastern Syria.

He added that, the last of them was by the Turkish airstrike on a civilian convoy of civilians which was heading to the city of Ras al-Ain, where 4 journalists lost their lives as a result of the bombing, adding that some journalists have lost limbs, causing permanent disability.  

While Sido confirmed that ISIS and Turkey targeted journalists specifically, by saying: "so that the reality of crimes and violations doesn't appear to the public".  

He also stressed that journalists who reported the recent Turkish military invasion in northeastern Syria from the Turkish side "have been subjected to many harassment and threats, the latest was Zedan Zineglo, Al-Arabiya TV Network correspondent, who was expelled by the Turkish government for incompatible reporting with Turkey".  

The Free Media Union published a statement saying that, the Turkish aggression targeted their fellow journalists and "through its media machine, it is launching a mass media attack inciting hatred among the Syrian people".