Deadly Day For Journalists, Three Killed In Egypt, One Missing In Syria

Wednesday, August 14, 2013 was not a good day to be a journalist covering conflict. Three reporters were killed in Egypt’s violent protests and one is missing in Syria.

The Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported the 1,000th duty-related death for those professionals since 1992.

Three journalists were killed while covering the violence in Egypt which has come as a result of the ousting of former President Mohammed Orsi.

On Wednesday, the situation escalated between Orsi supporters and police.

The killings occurred on the one year anniversary of the disappearance of freelance reporter, Austin Tice, who was on assignment covering the civil war in Syria.

As reported by The Inquisitr, British outlet Sky News’ cameraman Mick Deane. 61, was shot and killed while covering the street protests in Cairo’s Nasr City district.

The network’s chief describes Deane as “a really lovely, lovely guy. He was great fun to work with, he was an astonishingly good cameraman who took some brilliant pictures. But he also had first class editorial brain. He had brilliant ideas.”

These killings mark the 1,000th death in the line of duty for the journalists, since the CPJ started keeping track.

CPJ’s deputy director Robert Mahoney said in a statement that the Egyptian government must allow the professionals to work freely and should conduct an immediate investigation into who killed Deane, as well as holding those responsible to account.

Two other journalists were killed on Wednesday, although there is not confirmation that they were working at the time.

Habiba Ahmed Abd Elaziz, 26, was also shot in Cairo, although the publication for which she works, XPRESS, reported she was in Egypt on vacation.

Ahmed Abdel Gawad, who is a reporter for Egypt’s state run newspaper Al Akhbar, was killed as well. The circumstances surrounding his death are not clear.

Wednesday marked the anniversary of the disappearance of freelance reporter Austin Tice while working in Syria. Tice, 22, is believed to have been detained by the Syrian government on this day in 2012.

Freelance journalist James Foley, also disappeared in Syria on November 22,2012.

If confirmed that the rest of the journalists were working at the time of their killing, the total number of deaths would rise.