Syria: Injured French Journalist Edith Bouvier Still Trapped in Besieged Homs · Global Voices
Ahmed Medien

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12.
On 22 February, 2012, four Western journalists were attacked in a house – thought to be safe – in Baba Amr, Homs, by Syrian regime forces. American Sunday Times’ journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Olchik died when the makeshift media centre frequented by mainstream and citizen journalists was shelled.
The two remaining journalists, Le Figaro's Edith Bouvier and British photographer Paul Conroy, were injured and managed to survive the attack.
This graphic video (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT) shows the charred remains of the occupants of the house.
The following video (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT) is the first video to surface on video sharing sites which shows Bouvier and Conroy. It appeared online on February 22, on the same day that both journalists were targeted by regime forces.
The video shows both victims in a Syrian hospital with two Syrian doctors describing the circumstances of the attack. The doctors talk about the medical condition of the two victims, the bad shape of the hospital – due to lack of equipment – and voice serious criticism against the Assad regime, which accuses foreign journalists of being agents.
Are the infants and these innocent foreign journalists all criminals and terrorists, too?
These were the sharp words of the two doctors – who are also referred to in other videos as Free Syrian Army doctors.
The world showed great sympathy to the attack on these journalists and videos showing their injuries went viral on YouTube and Facebook. The videos were soon translated from Arabic to French and English to inform the world about the atrocities happening in Syria.
The day after the attack, February 23, new videos showing Bouvier and Conroy appeared on YouTube. The videos went viral once again with hundreds of thousands of views across social media networks and were even translated to many languages, including Korean.
Conroy speaks here about the attack and his injuries:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPMrPGLDAD4
While Bouvier tells the world about her injuries in this video [fr]:
Most videos seeping from Syria are taken by phone cameras. The original owner of such videos is often hard to find since thousands of YouTube users often use the same content to share with the rest of the world the war crimes committed by the Syrian regime.
Netizens, including Twitter users from around the world, showed great support to both journalists. Bouvier's Twitter account – @danslesrues received hundreds of support tweets in many languages, which she retweets and marks as favorites.
@LyraMckee: Good luck. We need more great reporters. You're one of them. Keep hope up; you still have so much great work to do.
A good point to raise, though, is that Bouvier hasn't sent a single tweet since January 27. Yet, since February 22, i.e. the day of the assault, her account started recording dozens of tweets and retweets per day, none of which are hers.
Today, French authorities confirmed that Conroy has made it out of Homs to Lebanon while Bouvier was still trapped in besieged Homs.
Atrocities in Syria have touched netizens across the world as the human tragedy mounts. To date, the death toll in Syria surpasses 8,000.
On YouTube, MaximilienWolfgang shares his thoughts about Syria:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GweN-qKto_Y
Syria has been under a government crackdown for nearly a year now. NGOs report the death of dozens of people everyday across the country. Freedom of press is still oppressed as very little information is trickled out of the country.
The Committee to Protect Journalists yesterday reported the death of Anas al-Tarsha, 17, a netizen killed instantly while filming the bombardment in Qarabees, a district in Homs under heavy attack, when a mortar shell fell on him.
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12.