The International Press Institute today expressed its deep concern over the treatment of journalists from news agency Reuters in Syria, where protests against the authoritarian government of President Bashar Al-Assad have spread in recent days despite the use of violence against demonstrators.

Reuters’ Damascus-based correspondent Khaled Yacoub Oweis was ordered out of the troubled country on Friday, after the information ministry withdrew his accreditation for his “unprofessional and false news,” the news agency reported on 26 March.

Two Lebanese journalists for Reuters TV, producer Ayat Basma and cameraman Ezzat Baltaji, who Reuters said had been missing since Saturday afternoon, have now been released from detention in Damascus, reports say.

Basma and Baltaji had travelled to Syria on Thursday afternoon, but did not return on schedule on Saturday 26 March, and were unreachable by phone. In a report on their release, Reuters quoted a Syrian official as saying that the journalists were detained and questioned because they did not have permits to work in Syria, and were filming “in an area where filming is not permitted.”

“It is absolutely vital, particularly in times of crisis, that journalists be allowed to do their job without fear of arrest or worse,” said IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills. “We urge the Syrian authorities to reinstate accreditation for Khaled Yacoub Oweis, to free all journalists in prison because of their work, and to allow the free flow of information.