A leading press freedom organization on Monday called on French President Jacques Chirac to voice concern during an upcoming visit to Syria over what it described as harassment suffered by Syrian journalists.
In an open letter to the French leader, the Vienna-based Institute for Press Freedom (IPI) asked him to discuss the case of Syrian opposition activist and journalist Nizar Nayyouf, currently in France to receive medical treatment.
As a result of Nayyouf's campaigning for press freedom, the IPI said, members of his family are "faced with constant harassment and violence as well as the threat of exile."
Nayyouf's family members had lost their jobs, been denied university places, had their phone lines cut and been physically attacked in the street as part of a campaign of intimidation, the IPI said, cited by AFP.
The organization also stressed the plight of three journalists arrested for distributing a human rights newsletter without official authorization, and said it was deeply concerned by the Syrian authorities' refusal to renew the working papers of the correspondent for Agence France-Presse in Damascus.
President Chirac is due to pay an official visit to Syria later this month. (Albawaba.com)
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