Japanese woman reporter shot dead in Syria's Aleppo

This is the kind of risk we journalist take. We know the risk yet we do it to get the truth out to the rest of the world. I am 100% sure I speak for everyone in the journalism community around the world when I say her death will not be in vain and we will never forget her or the sacrifices she made.

Thank you, Mika Yamamoto. We often take news for granted as we read the articles over breakfast in the comfort of our homes or at our desks in nice, safe offices, never really thinking of the risks these journalists (and photo journalists) take to bring us such news. These people are dedicated.

so sad...R.I.P.

@Tatanka:

When I first read the article (that lacked details) I knew she had to be a freelancer; no reputable news organization would send a reporter (let alone a women) into an active war zone."

Google the following names: Christiane Amanpour of CNN, Jacky Rowland of the BBC, Marie Colvin of The Sunday Times, Janine di Giovanni of The Times, Kate Adie of the BBC, Giuliana Sgrena of Die Zeit and Il Manifesto, Kate West of UPI and Agence France-Presse, etc etc etc.

That place is the wild west. Anyone that goes there to report is putting themselves in harms way. I still rest in peace and condolences to her family.

After reading some of the vile and hateful posts around the web about this brave woman, i am truely ashamed of my fellow (so called) human beings. I'm begining to wonder if there is any hope for us at all.

AMEN! HERO TO JOURNALISM...

Mika Yamamoto arigatou gozaimasu!

“If the international community doesn’t move to help the Syrian people, they have to react to the spilling of their citizens’ blood on Syrian territory...”

I really hope the rebels didn't shoot her... because if they did, it would make this line seem extremely ominous... like they shot her to get Western forces on the ground. I hope I'm seeing a conspiracy which doesn't exist.

“She was always talking about tragic people who were caught in conflicts, human lives and world peace. She was more than I was… she is a wonderful reporter and daughter,” he told Jiji Press.

Poor man. May he at least have the consolation of knowing his daughter was a true hero as he deals with his grief. And millions of Japanese are more knowledable as a result of her effors.

I don't know why I feel such anger right now.. Even though she enjoyed her line of work I feel like she just wasted her life to find out what's really going on in a frickin war zone country. And to just watch her father just receiving the news of his daughters death really hurt me. NO job is ever worth losing ones life ... Ever. Warheads deliberately make a target out of those who simply want to find out the "truth" wether you come in peace or not.

I really hope they found some type of info that was worth killing off Ms Yamamoto's life...

She was a brave, hard working and lovely woman. What a shame.

RIP. i hope her dedication won't end in vain.

And all of a sudden the Syrian conflict is headline news in Japan

Nice try. There has been regular coverage of the conflict for some time now. Of course it will be headline news when a reporter is killed.

She might be an independent free lance journalist. Japanese big medias do not send their people instead buy photos and reports from them.

I must assume she enjoyed her work since she certainly was there by choice. Hope she had the right kind of life insurance that doesn't exempt death in war zone.

It's really sad. We are just citizens, but there should be anything we can do to show our concern about what is happening in Syria, what makes me really feel pain, is to know that there are every days children dying, or innocent people that is not really related to that, and by the hands of their own government.. If it was our case, and our presidents started killing our people, we would be begin for the help of the developed countries, to stop this.. But maybe we are part of those powerful countries that only watch and does not do anything.. Feeling sad for that does not help.. there would be something to do

All journalists who end as freelance get the short end of the stick. I am sure she knew something we don't. Rest in peace and may your family and friends be proud of your work and success.

Rest in peace Mika. As Rose said, you are a true hero -- caring, courageous and with convictions.

Rest in peace. Can guarantee, as a war reporter, that there probably weren't many other ways she'd have wanted to die. Not that that mitigates how sad these deaths are, but there it is.

The rebels said that this should bring attention to the global media and should shock them into action. I hope the rebels are either not killing the reporters on purpose or putting them in sure deaths situations to achieve their own objectives

RIP Mika... another death in this insane power struggle.

ubikwit:

" nother tragic death, and another journalist killed by the "opposition", "

You don´t know if she was killed by the "opposition". In fact, I doubt it very much. She obviously was hosted and driven around by the "opposition", acting as a useful propaganda tool. It is not like a Western reporter, would travel alone there these days, and a female one at that.

The Western press are used as useful stoodges by the "opposition", aka Muslim Brotherhood.

@ Kataribe & Tatanka

@Tatanka:

When I first read the article (that lacked details) I knew she had to be a freelancer; no reputable news organization would send a reporter (let alone a women) into an active war zone."

Google the following names: Christiane Amanpour of CNN, Jacky Rowland of the BBC, Marie Colvin of The Sunday Times, Janine di Giovanni of The Times, Kate Adie of the BBC, Giuliana Sgrena of Die Zeit and Il Manifesto, Kate West of UPI and Agence France-Presse, etc etc etc.

Thank you for mentioning all those excellent journo's, and not to forget the venerable Claire Hollingworth, who broke the news of the German invasion of Poland...

And regardless of gender, ALL news org's send reporters into combat zones, that's their job! The big ones also do combat training for any staff liable to be in a war situation, to lessen the chances of this kind of tragedy.

BTW, it's Kate Webb, not West - ironically after all those wars, it was cancer that killed her. AFP established a journalism award in her name.

RIP Yamamoto. I hope this was not in vain.

This is very sad, but of course operating in war zones is risking one's life. Yamamoto believed in what she was doing but was rewarded by being shot by trigger happy cowards. I want to think her life was not taken in vain.

Sucks but that's the risk you run when you go into a war zone.

IMO reporters shouldn't be in warzones period but that's another topic entirely.

So sad... Rest in peace! I can't tell whose side is right or wrong, but someone has to intervene to give an end to this massacre.

So sad, what a waste...

Why...? Did she have to go there..? Unbelievable...

How shocking was to find out about Ms. Yamamoto's death, even more to see the graphic photos and video of her. She was with her husband right? I found him along with her bio here http://fandaily.info/?p=30763, but I must warn you the pics are shocking

"Google the following names: Christiane Amanpour of CNN, Jacky Rowland of the BBC, Marie Colvin of The Sunday Times, Janine di Giovanni of The Times, Kate Adie of the BBC, Giuliana Sgrena of Die Zeit and Il Manifesto, Kate West of UPI and Agence France-Presse, etc etc etc."

@Kataribe:

You took the words right out of my mouth.

I didn't see her wearing a bullet proof vest in the footage prior to her death. I thought the jackets are a responsible requirement while reporting in war ravaged areas!

if you value your life you would be advised not to go to Syria these days. Just sayin'

here's a link to an article that contains all of the varying accounts.

since she was covering the rebels, the account of government troops marching in formation seems highly dubious:

propaganda

here's an article that makes it seem that it may not have been the rebels that shot her:

http://www.euronews.com/2012/08/21/slain-japan-reporter-wanted-to-show-world-war-in-syria/

I watched her reports from Iraw and Afghaistan. The poor woman sounded like a terrified goose when the shooting started. I remember thinking "What the heck are you doing there Honey. This is not for you". Anyway I salute her bravery.

Another tragic death, and another journalist killed by the "opposition", who don't want you to know what's really going on there.

Reports from the U.S.-funded Arabic language broadcaster Al Hurra said four journalists had been traveling in a car that was attacked by fighters dressed like those from the Free Syrian Army, citing the vehicle's driver.

My condolences to the family.

don't go to a war zone

The United Nations says more than 18,000 people have been killed in the conflict, 170,000 have fled Syria and 2.5 million need aid within the country.

Will we ever be free of ourselves? We're vicitms of our nature.

RIP

@WilliB,

I just noticed that they have completely rewritten the article. The following quote was taken from the original version of this article posted by JT. I can't believe that they did that.

Reports from the U.S.-funded Arabic language broadcaster Al Hurra said four journalists had been traveling in a car that was attacked by fighters dressed like those from the Free Syrian Army, citing the vehicle's driver.

as far as i can tell from the google search results, the AFP changed their version of the article, which was then apparently reflected in this article on JT, sourced from the AFP.

if you do a google search on the following you can see the indication of the earlier content of the article, but if you click on the link it gives you the revises, current version.

"Reports from the U.S.-funded Arabic language broadcaster Al Hurra said four journalists had been traveling in a car that was attacked"

seems i forgot to post the link:

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/21/233366.html

And all of a sudden the Syrian conflict is headline news in Japan. Ironic, really, how she gave everything to bring the conflict (and in particular its effect on children) to the attention of Japanese people, and nobody gave a rat's until this happened.

@WilliB

You do notice that I quoted a passage from the article implicating the opposition in the killing.

Did you rrread the damn article???

Also, as per the link posted by Iso Poika, the opposition have been implicated in other killings of Western journalists.

The poor woman probably thought that the rabid lunatics weren't going to shoot up their civilian vehicle...

One would hope that her death will still the flow of pro-rebel posts by the secret agenda crowd.

She was murdered in a war zone by criminals shooting at a civilian vehicle.

Her death is a testimony to the crimes being committed there.

Crimes that could and should be halted, by all sides.

the Syrian Army considers foreign reporters no better than peeping Toms.

Actually, that probably applies more to the rebels. It is widely recognized that the rebels consider the deaths of journalists a good thing, because it makes the Syrian government look bad. The French reporter Gilles Jacquier was eventually found to have been killed by the rebels, not by the Syrian military.

The best thing is for all foreign reporters to leave.

No, then we would get all our information from the "Observatory", the world needs heroes like Mika Yamamoto to tell/show us what is really going on. R.I.P. Mika!

If it was our case, and our presidents started killing our people, we would be begin for the help of the developed countries, to stop this.

Indeed, but if it was the developed countries that was funding/arming/assisting a group of mercenaries to kill our people, we would be begging our president to go all out and crush these killers.

You don´t know if she was killed by the "opposition". In fact, I doubt it very much.

For those who have trouble believing the rebels would do this, please watch this RT report.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxzlGlnEV6k

You can also listen to UK journalist Alex Thomson describe how dead journalists are bad for Damascus.

When I first read the article (that lacked details) I knew she had to be a freelancer; no reputable news organization would send a reporter (let alone a women) into an active war zone. Sad as it is to hear of an innocent death, but this person was in a war zone where the risk of injury or death is very high. Further, this is a civil war where the Syrian Army considers foreign reporters no better than peeping Toms. The best thing is for all foreign reporters to leave. This is not news, its just a domestic quarrel (with guns) with the rebels wanting power so they can start stealing all the loot and imposing their crazy religion like in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere, against the Alawites (Assad) who want to keep all the power.

Akemi Mokoto:

" This is the kind of risk we journalist take. We know the risk yet we do it to get the truth out to the rest "

...and since when are reporters getting the "the truth" out? We certainly don´t see that in the in the uniform partyline propaganda that the press corps delivers in the Muslim Brotherhood takeover in Syria.