Magnus kidnapped in Syria…
(BRUSSELS2) We have just learned from the AJE (the association of European journalists of which I am a member) that Magnus Falkehed, a Swedish press correspondent based in Paris, has been kidnapped in Syria, together with the photographer Niclas Hammarstrom. The two journalists were leaving Syria on Saturday, November 23, when they were captured by an unknown group.
Magnus has been a member of AJE-France since 2008. From a extraordinary kindness and unfailing professionalism », it is - as recalled Fabrice Pozzoli-Montenay who knows him much better than I an attentive observer of European issues and French news for the past twenty years”.
Working in Syria, a nightmare
Today, I think of him as of the French journalists Didier François (Defense specialist at Europe1), Édouard Elias, Nicolas Hénin and Pierre Torres still detained in Syria (http://otagesensyrie.org/), to the American James Fooley who worked for the AFP and his compatriot Austin Tice, to Marc Marginedas Izquierdo, of the daily El Periodico in Barcelona, almost three months ago... And others still.
Syria is today the most dangerous country in the world for journalists. He is ranked 173rd out of 178 in the ranking of by Reporters Without Borders. More than 110 information actors (journalists and netizens) have been killed in the course of their duties since March 2011, more than sixty are now detained, held hostage or missing. "Working in Syria is a nightmare", according to the president of the Swedish section of RSF, Jonathan Lundqvist.
Commentary: The conflict in Syria is not a giveaway. But the systematic targeting of journalists is not random (like the systematic destruction of hospitals and the targeting of doctors and other rescue workers). It is a question both of cutting off the sources of independent information to leave free rein to propaganda and, at the same time, of finding sources of financing (through the ransoms paid).
