Al Jazeera cameraman Ali Hasan Al-Jaber was killed and two others wounded in an apparent ambush by unknown gunmen on Saturday, the network reported.

According to the Doha-based news group, Al-Jaber was returning to the rebel-held city of Benghazi after reporting on protests in a nearby town when his vehicle was fired upon. He was reportedly hit by three shots and was wounded in the heart. His colleagues rushed the reporter to hospital, but he did not survive.
Since the Tunisian revolution and the successful protests that began in Egypt earlier this year, Al Jazeera reporters have been repeatedly singled out for harassment and assault in protesting countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

“We condemn the violent killing of Ali Hasan Al-Jaber, and send our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and colleagues,” said IPI Director Alison Bethel McKenzie. “We offer our solidarity to the journalists at Al Jazeera, and all the other media workers who are risking their lives to bring news of the ongoing events in Libya.

“Reporters, photojournalists and cameramen must be allowed to report the news, and we again call on the Libyan authorities to immediately release any journalists who remain in their custody. We also call on the country’s leaders to move toward a free and open media.”

Prior to the protests, foreign reporters found it extremely difficult to enter Libya, and local journalists were forced to skirt red lines for fear of retribution.

After foreign reporters managed to cross the border into Libya, days after protests and the ensuing violence began, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s government invited journalists to come to Tripoli and freely report. But the visiting journalists have since found it difficult to escape their minders or even leave their hotels, ostensibly for their own security, the Los Angeles Times reported last week,

Last week, three BBC reporters said that they were detained and beaten by Qaddafi forces for 21 hours.
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad of the Guardian has been held by the Libyan authorities since 2 March, when he was arrested along with Andrei Netto of Brazilian newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo in Zawiyah, a town around 30 km from Tripoli.  Netto was released yesterday, but Abdul-Ahad remains in custody, according to the Guaridian’s live blog on the Middle East.

Abdul- Ahad is one of at least seven journalists that have gone missing since the uprising began last month, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.