Zado, the Homs director of the citizen news organization
Shaam News Network, was killed along
with two colleagues–Ahmed Adnan al-Ashlaq, a Shaam correspondent, and Lawrence
Fahmy al-Naimi, the head of live streaming for the network–while filming
clashes between security forces and armed rebels in Damascus. The journalists
were in an apartment in the Al-Midan neighborhood when their building was
shelled by security forces, according to a Shaam News Network representative
who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The representative said the network believes security forces
targeted the journalists. The representative told CPJ that the army had taken
away the bodies and had not returned them to their families in Homs.
The Damascus-based Shaam News
Network has posted thousands of videos documenting the unrest since the
uprising began in March 2011. Shaam’s footage has been used heavily by several
international news organizations including Al-Jazeera, BBC, and
CNN.