Sniper fire kills French journalist in Aleppo
A Belgian-born French journalist, Yves Debay, has died from sniper fire in north Syrias Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.
Given all the poseurs and fools in the world of journalism in Washington, New York, Ho'wood and so on, a journalist who goes to the front line and risks his life to get a story has my respect. | He was killed on one of Aleppos fronts on Thursday, said the Aleppo Media Centre, adding that he was shot by a government sniper.
Anti-government activists in Aleppo posted online photographs of Debays body and of his Press card, as well as an amateur video showing the corpse. The French defence ministry Press card, dated 2010, showed Debays name and picture.
The AMCs Abu Hisham said via the Internet that he was first alerted of Debays killing by a volunteer at an Aleppo field hospital. Another activist said he helped put Debays body in an ambulance en route to the Bab Al Salama border crossing with Turkey. It is not exactly clear how he was killed, but it seems like he entered a very dangerous street where the army and pro-government militia were positioned, said the activist.
Debay founded Assaut magazine, a French publication specialised in defence. He reportedly described himself as a rebel journalist.
Debay was born in 1954 in Lubumbashi, in what was then the Belgian Congo. He volunteered until 1980 with the ex-Rhodesian army of the white minority regime that ruled what is now Zimbabwe until 1980.
At least 17 professional journalists and 44 citizen journalists have died reporting on one of the deadliest wars for the media in recent years, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Posted by: Steve White 2013-01-20 |