Junaid
was head of the Qaboun
Media Center, a group of opposition citizen journalists who film clashes in the neighborhood of Qaboun and publish the unattributed
videos online, according to international broadcaster Al-Jazeera and the local
press freedom group Syrian Journalists Association.
Junaid,
who was known locally as “Abu Ameer,” was killed with Ghaith Abd al-Jawad,
another journalist for the Qaboun Media Center, by a mortar shell fired by
pro-Assad forces in Qaboun, according to Shaam News Network and other reports. The
Qaboun Media Center posted a video
of a shell landing close to one of its other photographers, who was uninjured,
on the same day. Qaboun and surrounding neighborhoods on the outskirts of Damascus
witnessed intense fighting that day.
There
were conflicting reports on the circumstances surrounding Junaid’s death. The
Syrian Journalists Association said
Junaid was hit while on his way to cover civilians in a makeshift hospital
injured by shelling from pro-Assad forces. But Al-Jazeera said
Junaid was hit while filming shelling in the area. Neither source provided
further details.
The
Qaboun Media Center has published hundreds of videos since it established its YouTube account
in July 2011. Similar media centers have sprung up all across Syria as citizen
journalists and opposition activists document how the unrest has affected their
communities. The Qaboun Media Center’s videos have been broadcast by local and
international news outlets, including the New
York Times, Al-Jazeera,
and the Daily
Mail.
The
documentation provided by citizen journalists has been crucial in the
international understanding of the Syrian conflict because of extreme
government restrictions and danger that prevent widespread news media coverage.
According
to Baraa al-Shami, a member of a network of opposition groups in Damascus
called the Revolution Leadership Council, Junaid had worked as a journalist through
the uprising and civil war and filmed battles and protests in the outskirts of
Damascus.