14 Apr 2011

Syria detains Algerian journalist: rights group

SYRIA, Apr 14, 2011 (AFP) - Syrian authorities have arrested an Algerian freelance journalist working for the French radio station France Culture and are holding him in a Damascus prison, a press watchdog said Thursday.

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Reporters Without Borders said Khaled Sid Mohand, who has also written for the French daily Le Monde, had been detained on April 9 in the Syrian capital.

The Paris-based group also said a Syrian writer and former political prisoner, Fayez Sara, was arrested on April 11 after a dissident meeting. He was previously arrested in 2008 and held for two-and-a-half years.

According to the group, eight more Syrian and international journalists and bloggers have been detained since the recent outbreak of protests against the authoritarian government of President Bashar al-Assad.

"We call on the Syrian authorities to free all journalists and netizens, whether they be foreign or Syrian, and all prisoners of conscience in Syria. The reign of terror and the injustice has gone on too long," it said.

Syria has been rocked since March 15 by unprecedented protests demanding political reforms and an end to a draconian emergency law that has been in effect since 1963. Some demonstrations have been violently repressed.

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