The American journalist Marie Colvin and the French photo journalist Rémi Ochlik have just died in Homs in Syria in an attack that also seriously affected several confreres including Edith Bouvier, on a mission for Le Figaro. After the heinous assassination of Gilles Jacquier on January 11 in the same city of Homs, this is another intolerable attack on freedom of expression, the freedom to be informed. It is a terrible tragedy for the great family of journalists around the world who have already paid a heavy price for their freedom and independence in 2011, and a personal heartbreak for the families and loved ones of the victims.

If the precise circumstances of their disappearance while they were in a press centre with other journalists are not yet known, it is clear that the conditions for carrying out the journalists' missions in Syria are still as precarious, that these unspeakable attacks on journalists' freedom of practice must stop. The Minister calls on the Syrian authorities to take immediate action to put an end to the repeated and deliberate threats against press freedom, and consequently to guarantee the necessary protective measures for all journalists present in Syria, whether Syrian or foreign.

Frédéric Mitterrand asks that all the light be shed and the responsibilities clearly established following the tragic disappearance of Marie Colvin and Rémi Ochlik, a 28-year-old journalist who had covered the 2011 revolutions in Tunisia, in Egypt and Libya, whose work was rewarded with a World Press Photo, notably in Le Monde Magazine, VSD, Paris Match, Time Magazine and The Wall Street Journal.

Frédéric Mitterrand assures Edith Bouvier of his support and conveys his deep condolences and affection to the families and loved ones of the two journalists killed.