Hassan, a Bahraini videographer, was shot
after filming a pro-reform protest in Salmabad, a village southwest of the
capital, Manama, according to local journalists and news reports. After the
protest was dispersed by riot police with tear gas and rubber bullets, unknown
assailants in a Toyota Land Cruiser began firing live ammunition at the
protesters, news reports said. Hassan, who was among those shot, died in a
hospital later that morning, the reports said.
The 22-year-old videographer began filming protests more
than a year ago when the uprising began in Bahrain, Adel Marzooq, the president
of the London-based Bahrain Press Association, told CPJ. Hassan had uploaded
several videos to his YouTube
channel that were picked up by regional news outlets, Marzooq said. Local
journalists also told CPJ that the videographer’s work provided critical
documentation in restricted areas like Salmabad.
Bahrain’s authorities have obstructed and harassed
international journalists in an effort to impose a media blackout of the
uprising, making video
footage from citizen journalists like Hassan vital in informing media
coverage of the unrest, CPJ research found.
Hassan was the third media fatality in Bahrain since the
start of the uprising.