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.