Al-Ali,
news editor and reporter for the pro-government outlet Dunya TV, died on January
4 from bullet wounds he sustained on December 31, according to state news
agency SANA
and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who spoke to CPJ by email.
SANA
reported that the assailants shot al-Ali in his car as he drove to his home in the
suburbs of Damascus from the offices of Dunya TV. SANA labeled the assailants “terrorists,”
a term the regime has used as a catch-all phrase for all opposition fighters
since the start of the uprising in March 2011, according to news reports.
Pro-government news outlet Sama TV reported
on al-Ali’s funeral in a village in Homs on January 6, 2013.