Freelance
February 21, 2012, in Homs, Syria

Al-Sayed, a videographer, died at a local hospital soon after being wounded while covering Syrian forces' bombardment of the city of Homs, news reports said. The central city was under the 18th consecutive day of intense shelling by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

Al-Sayed was a videographer whose work appeared on a live-streaming site and was picked up by international and regional news organizations. He had transmitted videos of events in the Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr to the live-streaming site Bambuser, and had uploaded hundreds of videos to his YouTube channel. His footage was used by several news organizations, news reports said.

By controlling local news reports and expelling or denying entry to dozens of international journalists, the Syrian government had sought to impose a blackout on independent news coverage after the country's uprising began in early 2011. In the face of this attempted news blackout, international media relied heavily on footage shot by citizen journalists such as al-Sayed.

Al-Sayed was the cousin of Basil al-Sayed, a videographer killed while working in Baba Amr in December.

Medium:Internet
Job:Camera Operator
Beats Covered:Human Rights, War
Gender:Male
Local or Foreign:Local
Freelance:Yes
Type of Death:Crossfire/Combat-Related
Suspected Source of Fire:Military Officials

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