Syria - Assad Kills French Reporter - 11-Jan-12 - Nine Dead in Dictator Grenade Attack

Dictator Bashar Assad killed a French Reporter and wounded many other people in a grenade attack on the foreign journalists intented to scare off the international press and to prevent them from reporting on the Assad terror regime campaign of genocide against the Syrian people.
A French TV cameraman became the first Western journalist killed in the 10-month-old Syrian uprising Wednesday, dying in a barrage of grenades during a government-sponsored trip to the restive city of Homs, officials and a witness said.
Gilles Jacquier,who was killed, worked for the France 2 public television channel.
About 15 journalists were on the government trip when they were hit by several grenades, according to Jens Franssen, who was on the tour. "At some point, three or four (grenade) shells hit, very close to us," Franssen told the Belgian VRT network.

Video footage posted on YouTube appeared to show the aftermath of the attack, with people frantically loading the injured into cars. Pools of blood stained the ground. The authenticity of the footage, however, could not be verified.

A Dutch freelance journalist was also wounded in Homs on Wednesday, although it wasn't clear if he was part of the trip.

Jacquier, 43, was the first foreign journalist to be slain, Reporters Without Borders said. He had reported over the years from Afghanistan, Gaza, Congo, Iraq and Yemen, most recently for the investigative program "Special Envoy," his network said.

"It's up to Syrian authorities to ensure the security of international journalists on their territory, and to protect this fundamental liberty, which is the freedom of information," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.

Al-Akhbar:

Nine people were killed, including French journalist Gilles Jacquier, when shells struck a pro-regime rally in the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday.

French television network France 2 confirmed their journalist Jacquier had died covering the rally, while Belgian journalist Steven Visner from Belgian radio was also seriously wounded.

"Another journalist from Belgium is in a very bad situation," Mazen Darwish, director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Speech, told Al-Akhbar.

Jacquier is the first foreign journalist to have been killed in Syria since the uprising began last March.

Darwish, citing local sources, said RPGs were fired on the protest in the Akramah neighborhood by unknown armed men.

The journalists were in Syria legally after receiving permission from the Ministry of Information, Darwish said.

"Last week the Ministry of Information allowed 135 journalists to enter Syria, some of them got permission for a few days. These two journalists were among them," he said.

Darwish expressed concern that the attack will deter journalists from trying to reach Syria to cover the crisis.

"We've been fighting a long time for independent journalists to come to Syria. I will be sorry if journalists stop coming to Syria and getting coverage from inside Syria," he said.

Foreign journalists have been unable to freely cover the crisis in Syria, with few exceptions granted to those willing to be escorted by the regime.

In explaining his ban on foreign media coverage in Syria, President Bashar Assad said the media lacked legitimacy.

"We chose to keep the media out because they lack legitimacy to report [on the crisis] from outside, let alone inside the country," he said in a Tuesday speech.

Saleem Kabbani, a member of the opposition Local Coordination Committees (LCC) reportedly in Homs, told Al-Akhbar he was not aware of the attack.

"Protest with the regime? I don't know anything about it," he said.

But the LCC member insisted on blaming the regime for the attack, stating that Assad is "killing people loyal to him in order to create internal and sectarian strife."

The attack was an attempt to "scare off pro-regime loyalists who have not joined the revolution yet," Kabbani said.

When asked for further details, Kabbani said he would not be able to get information from pro-regime neighborhoods as he "would get slaughtered."

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[crazyheadphonez]

I LOVE HOW AMERICANS ARE MAKING MONEY OFF DEAD ARAB VIDEOS WITH ADVERTISEMENT!

[Souria2011archives]

@crazyheadphonez Actually Euronews has the copyright and these are their ads. I try to block and challenge all the non-copyrighted videos that people try to put ads on but it is an uphill battle.

[madtrade]

HAHAHAHA EVEN THE FRENCH PRESS KNOW IT WAS THE 'REBELS' WHO SHOT THE JOURNALIST  HAHAHAHAHA

fucking moron you are getting OWNED HARD !!!!

go take a look at the figaro.fr !!! HAHAHA OWNED SOOO HARD

[magygaby]

LIARS, LIARS; LIARS, LIARS, FOR HOW LONG ARE SYRIANS AND THE WORLD GOING TO LISTEN TO SUCH HYPOCRITE MANIPULATIONS?? FABBRICATED VIDEOS, FALSE FLAG ATTACKS? TOO MUCH INNOCENT BLOOD IS ON THE HAND OF WESTERN GOVERNMENTS...LIBYA, IRAK, NOW SYRIA, WHO IS NEXT?

[padajneseri1]

It's a LIE! and it's a FACT!

[MrToobitter]

FUCK KILLER ASS-SAD

FUCK KILLER ASS-SAD

FUCK CRIMINAL ASS-SAD

DEATH TO THE REGIME THAT OTHER COUNTRIES HAVE TO WATCH IT NOT TO KILL IT'S OWN PEOPLE .

[SMYYYSM]

You are a lair!!!!

Your terrorist friends killed assad supporters not the other way around

[alihaider1160]

A regime that massacred tens of thousands of his own citizens, that killed hundreds of civilian Lebanese and Palestinians and even killed and assassinated some of his own senior army and intelligence commanders and government officials to keep power and money to himself won't hesitate to kill few reporters and supporters to blame it on that " armed terrorist gangs" and justify more massacres and more humiliation to his people.

[2pacwwijk]

liar!!! why should assad kill a reporter at a pro assad rally who is guided by security forces, change the titel of this movie please