Young Syrian named journalist of the year

Syrian freelance journalist Hadi Abdullah today won one of the world's top press awards for reporting from some of the most perilous zones in his country's five-year-old war. Reporters without Borders (RSF) said it was awarding the 29-year-old Syrian the RSF-TV5 Monde prize, the second year running that the honour has gone to a Syrian.

RSF said Abdullah has unhesitatingly ventured into danger zones, where Western journalists



are no longer willing to go, to film and interview civilians. The award will be presented in Strasbourg tomorrow on the sidelines of the World Forum for Democracy, a meeting organised by the Council of Europe.

In 2015, the award went to Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim for her reports from the besieged city of Aleppo. RSF ranks China and Syria 176th and 177th on its assessment of 180 countries for press freedom.