Relief greets evacuation, but concern over fallen

New York, March, 1, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the news that two French journalists injured in Homs last week have reached safety in Lebanon. “We are relieved that Edith Bouvier and William Daniels are now safe but are concerned that the Syrian government’s assault on Homs has made it impossible to retrieve the bodies of our colleagues Marie Colvin and  Rémi Ochlik,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “We remain deeply concerned for the safety of all Syrian journalists who are risking their lives to report on the unrest across the country.”

Bouvier, who was injured in the same attack that killed the journalists on February 22, was trapped in Homs along with Daniels. The attack also injured British journalist Paul Conroy who managed to escape to Lebanon on Tuesday. In all, eight journalists have been killed in Syria in the last four months, CPJ research shows.