Syrian freelance journalist Hadi Abdullah on Monday 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.
Abdullah "has unhesitatingly ventured into danger zones, where Western journalists are no longer willing to go, to film and interview civilians," RSF said. Abdullah, who was briefly abducted in January by the Al-Nusra Front jihadist group, "has had frequent brushes with death," the press freedom group added. His cameraman was killed and Abdullah himself was seriously injured when a bomb exploded in the place where they staying.
The award will be presented in Strasbourg Tuesday on the sidelines of the World Forum for Democracy, a meeting organised by the Council of Europe. Abdullah will address the meeting via a video message.