The +963 Media Association expresses deep concern over a direct violation committed by Israeli forces against our colleague Nader Debbo, correspondent for +963, while he was fulfilling his professional duty covering field developments in the countryside of Quneitra Governorate in southern Syria.
On Saturday evening, June 14, 2025, at precisely 6:30 p.m., our colleague Nader Debbo and journalist Nour Golan were documenting the damage sustained by civilians following the downing of Iranian drones within Syrian territory.
While working in villages near the border strip, Israeli forces reportedly received information about the presence of a press team in the area. This prompted an Israeli patrol to pursue them for over thirty minutes in an apparent attempt to arrest them or seize their press equipment.
To safeguard the video material documenting these violations, the two journalists concealed their cameras and recordings before being stopped and interrogated on the ground by Israeli personnel, under the pretext that they were present in “military areas”.
However, the location where they were operating lies within civilian Syrian territory and is not subject to any restrictions under international laws or recognized conventions.
What our colleague Nader Debbo was subjected to constitutes a clear breach of international conventions that guarantee press freedom and ensure the protection of media personnel, particularly when reporting from conflict zones.
According to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every individual has the right to freedom of expression, which includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and disseminate information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. This establishes the right of journalists to conduct field coverage and report facts directly from event sites.
Furthermore, Article 79 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1977 states that journalists engaged in professional duties in conflict areas are regarded as civilians and must be protected as such, provided they are not taking a direct part in hostilities. Thus, arbitrarily targeting or restricting them constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law.
United Nations Security Council Resolution No. 2222 (2015) reaffirms these principles, calling for the respect and protection of journalists during armed conflict, ensuring that they are not targeted or harassed, and emphasizing the need to hold violators accountable for any offenses committed against them.
