Syria state TV journalist shot dead: official media

DAMASCUS - Agence France-Presse

Residents and Free Syrian Army fighters pose near a tank after the fighters said they fought and defeated government troops from the town of Ras al-Ain, near the province of Hasaka, 600 km (375 miles) from Damascus, November 22, 2012. REUTERS/Samer Abdullah/Shaam News Network/Handout

A Syrian state television journalist was shot dead in the capital on Wednesday, the latest in a string of employees of pro-government media to be killed, the official SANA news agency reported.
 
"An armed terrorist group assassinated journalist at the Public Authority for Radio and Television, Basel Tawfiq Yousef, in the Tadamun neighbourhood of Damascus," the news agency said.

The south Damascus district of Tadamun has seen heavy fighting between rebels and troops since the outbreak of major violence in the capital in July.
 
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the journalist was targeted because activists regarded him as a member of the "shabiha," militia supporters of President Bashar al-Assad who have been accused of some of the worst abuses of the 20-month uprising against his rule.
 
Staff of pro-government media have been among 14 professional journalists killed in Syria since the uprising erupted in March last year. Another 38 citizen journalists have been killed, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
 
Those killed have included the domestic news editor of SANA, a state television presenter and a journalist from the cultural section of the government daily Tishrin.